Alpha and beta testers ale house

ArchivedUser

What are the main things you want alpha and beta testing to focus on and why you think they are important?

Amazing prizes for best suggestion!

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ArchivedUser

learning all the spells so I can master them quickly ^^
I just want spend a few hours in the game taking it all in before I do any bug testing 

ArchivedUser

Bugs and Glitches. I have been involved with a few alpha/beta tests. 
These bugs can include anything from quest chains that are broke, to walls you can walk through. Your head falls off when you side step by the lake holding a beer. Skills not calculating correctly. 

ArchivedUser

Finding all the caravan routes to prepare me for the games release, so I can ambush caravans much easier... I mean, erm, helping with bugs.

ArchivedUser

Yes, agree, bugs and glitches first and foremost. A lot of the Alpha testers have gotten the privilege via their hard earned money spent on KS so in effect it's going to be their responsibility to play the devil's advocate as Ashes is created and told Intrepid to account on what they deliver. Intrepid have promised much and we've shown a great deal of faith in our pledges and support but this is the beginning of the journey not the end, and we need to make sure Intrepid remain faithful to their vision because that is what's going to define this game. It will change the genre or it will wither and die like {insertnumberhere} of MMOs over the last 5 to 10 years.

Intrepid need us not only to guide them along the path but also to let them know how dangerous it can be when they deviate from it.    

ArchivedUser

Better gameplay experience!........ I'm in.  Over use of forums.... its too late for me anyway. 
Answer to question BALANCE! 
In a game where everyone will need to have a chance to beat anyone (skill permitting) in open world pvp requires balance not yet achieved in other games. If you want players to play a variety of roles, ie the holy trinity+, a tank needs to be able to tank enough damage to compensate for lower dps to compete with what a pure dps can dish out.  Support role what fun is it to play a cough bard cough if when you get in a one on one in the field you fold like the origami champion of the world. 

ArchivedUser

I wrote a wall of text originally, but decided getting my point through in as few words as possible. 

Testing, reporting and fixing gamebreaking bugs.. Why? Because they suck.

ArchivedUser

As a admitted "grammar Grinch", I want to review each and every text pop-up, character soliloquy and quest coming across my screen.  Nothing gives me more pleasure than correcting punctuation, spelling and the overall poor use of grammar that typically comes with Alpha and Beta tests.  I know that programmers are working hard to give us content, however when I see a run-on sentence with no punctuation it is like nails on a chalkboard for me.

I know I can't be alone on this, especially those of us who have tested games from foreign countries.

ArchivedUser

Test out everything so i have a big knowlage of everything.

ArchivedUser

These days, Alphas and Betas are not really about bugs and glitches.
Modern alphas and betas are more about testing systems and balancing.
Reporting any bugs that are found is still important, though.

Might be that Intrepid is indie enough that bugs and glitches will be more prevalent than in AAA games. Lord knows, the forums here have had more bugs than I've ever experienced in a forums in the past 20 years.

Lots of systems to test though:
Nodes generating content.
Building and destructibility.
Religion and social progression.
Caravans and Sieges
Monster Coin Events

We might want to have a whole week devoted to everyone systematically working together to level a node to max - rather than playing competitively.
Just so we can construct and destroy every type of building for every node type.

It will be interesting to see how Intrepid directs us.

ArchivedUser

tickoke said:

As a admitted "grammar Grinch", I want to review each and every text pop-up, character soliloquy and quest coming across my screen.  Nothing gives me more pleasure than correcting punctuation, spelling and the overall poor use of grammar that typically comes with Alpha and Beta tests.  I know that programmers are working hard to give us content, however when I see a run-on sentence with no punctuation it is like nails on a chalkboard for me.

I know I can't be alone on this, especially those of us who have tested games from foreign countries.

Yep. I was a Localizations manager for Activision back in the day.
Minor typos in Landmark alpha and beta were like glaring supernovas to me.  

ArchivedUser

The problem is to test a game on this scale you would need to time for players to "ruin" the game. If the beta or alpha is a week at max, then the data you would get would be insufficient which would hurt the game when it came to release 

ArchivedUser

To get every other class nerfed except for mine. 

ArchivedUser

Dygz said:

These days, Alphas and Betas are not really about bugs and glitches.
Modern alphas and betas are more about testing systems and balancing.
Reporting any bugs that are found is still important, though.

Might be that Intrepid is indie enough that bugs and glitches will be more prevalent than in AAA games. Lord knows, the forums here have had more bugs than I've ever experienced in a forums in the past 20 years.

Lots of systems to test though:
Nodes generating content.
Building and destructibility.
Religion and social progression.
Caravans and Sieges
Monster Coin Events

We might want to have a whole week devoted to everyone systematically working together to level a node to max - rather than playing competitively.
Just so we can construct and destroy every type of building for every node type.

It will be interesting to see how Intrepid directs us.

Uhm I'm pretty sure that's bugs and glitches. It's quite literally almost the same thing. If you're testing nodes generating content, that is testing for bugs and glitches, if you're testing building and destructibility, that is testing for bugs and glitches. You may be looking at other things while you're doing it, but it literally boils down to testing to see if everything is working properly. 

ArchivedUser

Kinork said:

Dygz said:

These days, Alphas and Betas are not really about bugs and glitches.
Modern alphas and betas are more about testing systems and balancing.
Reporting any bugs that are found is still important, though.

Might be that Intrepid is indie enough that bugs and glitches will be more prevalent than in AAA games. Lord knows, the forums here have had more bugs than I've ever experienced in a forums in the past 20 years.

Lots of systems to test though:
Nodes generating content.
Building and destructibility.
Religion and social progression.
Caravans and Sieges
Monster Coin Events

We might want to have a whole week devoted to everyone systematically working together to level a node to max - rather than playing competitively.
Just so we can construct and destroy every type of building for every node type.

It will be interesting to see how Intrepid directs us.

Uhm I'm pretty sure that's bugs and glitches. It's quite literally almost the same thing. If you're testing nodes generating content, that is testing for bugs and glitches, if you're testing building and destructibility, that is testing for bugs and glitches. You may be looking at other things while you're doing it, but it literally boils down to testing to see if everything is working properly. 

In AAA games we're primarily testing systems and balance; not bugs and glitches.
All software has bugs and glitches, though... even released software.

Everything working properly can be more about overall design - is corruption actually deterring PKing as expected? Does the timing for node progression feel right?
Is the synergy of PvP and PvE working as expected?

AAA studios no longer rely very much on alpha testers and beta testers to find bugs. Their internal testing find the vast majority of bugs as part of their weekly and monthly Sprints.
We help them test network loads and overall systems and balance and "feel".
Rather than "Hey! I found a glitch."

ArchivedUser

It's my first time testing a early release, I just want to see  everything

ArchivedUser

Dygz said:

Kinork said:

Dygz said:

These days, Alphas and Betas are not really about bugs and glitches.
Modern alphas and betas are more about testing systems and balancing.
Reporting any bugs that are found is still important, though.

Might be that Intrepid is indie enough that bugs and glitches will be more prevalent than in AAA games. Lord knows, the forums here have had more bugs than I've ever experienced in a forums in the past 20 years.

Lots of systems to test though:
Nodes generating content.
Building and destructibility.
Religion and social progression.
Caravans and Sieges
Monster Coin Events

We might want to have a whole week devoted to everyone systematically working together to level a node to max - rather than playing competitively.
Just so we can construct and destroy every type of building for every node type.

It will be interesting to see how Intrepid directs us.

Uhm I'm pretty sure that's bugs and glitches. It's quite literally almost the same thing. If you're testing nodes generating content, that is testing for bugs and glitches, if you're testing building and destructibility, that is testing for bugs and glitches. You may be looking at other things while you're doing it, but it literally boils down to testing to see if everything is working properly. 

In AAA games we're primarily testing systems and balance; not bugs and glitches.
All software has bugs and glitches, though... even released software.

Everything working properly can be more about overall design - is corruption actually deterring PKing as expected? Does the timing for node progression feel right?
Is the synergy of PvP and PvE working as expected?

AAA studios no longer rely very much on alpha testers and beta testers to find bugs. Their internal testing find the vast majority of bugs as part of their weekly and monthly Sprints.
We help them test network loads and overall systems and balance and "feel".
Rather than "Hey! I found a glitch."

I'll have to agree to disagree. I think this boils down to yet again, another semantics issue. Most people would classify the aspects you're describing as a glitch or a bug. If Corruption is not doing what it is supposed to do, that would be a glitch of sorts. You can say "system" or "balance", the fact is, it is not working properly. Much like AAA doesn't actually stand for anything at all, it is just common verbiage to understand a highly funded, advertised game...common verbiage for something of this effect, is by very definition a glitch. 

I'm not quite sure why everyone on these forums love to play semantics. /shrug 

ArchivedUser

One way to look at it is the distinction between bugs and tuning. Bugs are more like unanticipated errors. Tuning is the process of optimizing systems that are already working.

UI glitches, crashes etc would fall into the bugs category. Balancing, stat changes, encounter flow, narrative changes etc would fall more into the tuning category.

I agree that alpha and beta (particularly beta) is more about helping the devs tune the game, but there will always be bugs creeping around in there too.

ArchivedUser

@Kinork , say, if the corruption system is working as intended, but players still prefer to gank even with the penalties, that doesn't mean that the system itself is bugged. This only means that this measure is not enough.

ArchivedUser

I would have to lean towards Kinork with this one. It's a semantics issue. I understand testing systems. 
However, I still coin the term "glitch" and "bug" when I am testing my servers, OS's, security etc. 
When something is not functioning properly, I do not say it is a system malfunction, or disproportionate balancing. 
Generally, as a cyber security professional, I hunt for bugs and glitches daily. 
Meh, 
Tomato, tomáto

ArchivedUser

Lilem said:

@Kinork , say, if the corruption system is working as intended, but players still prefer to gank even with the penalties, that doesn't mean that the system itself is bugged. This only means that this measure is not enough.

It also could possibly be working as intended. Players that prefer to play while under the effects of corruption will be at a severe disadvantage. If that's how they wish to play then, well, easy pickings for us

ArchivedUser

Kinork said:

I'll have to agree to disagree. I think this boils down to yet again, another semantics issue. Most people would classify the aspects you're describing as a glitch or a bug. If Corruption is not doing what it is supposed to do, that would be a glitch of sorts. You can say "system" or "balance", the fact is, it is not working properly. Much like AAA doesn't actually stand for anything at all, it is just common verbiage to understand a highly funded, advertised game...common verbiage for something of this effect, is by very definition a glitch. 

I'm not quite sure why everyone on these forums love to play semantics. /shrug 

It's not semantics; it's scope/scale. But, we don't have to agree.

ArchivedUser

I'd be interested to know if anyone has any ideas how to best test the node system, given its a dynamic system?

1. Use preset test cases with predefined node configurations, then let gameplay evolve from that point for a certain time period, then rinse and repeat.
   
   
2. Another thought would be to have scaling and/or time acceleration and just let the worlds evolve rapidly from scratch. 

These may be more suited to pre-alpha or early alpha testing though.

ArchivedUser

The devs will probably have run simulations already by the time we make itinto the game..
And their internal QA should have systematically run tests, including "real-time" speed runs.

If we want to test them, we just have to all focus on one node or a handful of nodes at a time. Depending on how many people we have in alpha and beta.

Build up a node, add a building, destroy the building, build a different building.
Giving us free resources would make testing that go faster.

ArchivedUser

I'll probably focus on figuring out the freehold mechanics and looking for that one spot in the world where i'm going to park my character when i go afk

ArchivedUser

Try and break something as badly as I'm broken inside. 

You know, for testing purposes.

ArchivedUser

Big thing I want to see in the alpha/beta(s) would be the an introduction to how team dynamics will be like with different classes, and the sort of roles they will fulfill for the each team.

ArchivedUser

I'm really looking forward to testing the combat system and how PvE feels in comparison to PvP. 

ArchivedUser

Truthfully, I really mainly test for selfish reason (exploring the world, learning the systems, testing what works & doesn't) when it comes to computer game alphas and betas. 

Heh. But if I do come across bugs or issues I'll definitely bring it up for discussion and/bug report it. So it's a win win. 

ArchivedUser

My usual MO for testing new games is simple. I play it. Look for inconsistencies in conversations, look for glitches in the map, look for grammar errors or inconsistencies in lore ... but I think it just works best when you simply play, with eyes open.

ArchivedUser

I play the way I play... I report the bugs that I encounter... I offer suggestions on the things that cross my mind.