Alpha2 - Testing

Balrog21

As many know who were in Alpha1, we really didn't have a road map or direction on what to test during Alpha1. This might have been intentional, so I'm not sure why there wasn't any direction for us.
But for Alpha2, Intrepid please give us some sort of road map for us on what you would like tested and what to give feedback on. I'm hoping you will, but I just want to give a heads up real early on this.
I know we all want to get in Vera and experience the world and have fun, trust me I'm at the front of the line in wanting to do this, but I also know we need to test systems extensively and see what needs tweaking, what needs a reword, etc.
Just an early friendly reminder for you guys! Keep up the stellar work and come on Alpha2!

McShave

I hope they don't give a road map so I can go in and kill the same boar 5000 times and give feedback for the ultimate boar-killing experience

Enigmatic Sage

my educated guess would be since it's a closed game loop sample... essentially everything involved with that Should not over look anything to be honest. If you're not good at testing, just play/enjoy it and maybe you'll stumble across something.

Raven016

I don't need a roadmap.
I'll test whatever I want and maybe focus on what was added latest.
But is good to have change logs.

Caww

AoC could also use some "1 (Disagree/Bad) thru 10 (Agree/Good)" Questionnaires to get specific feedback in-addition to written comments.

Taleof2Cities

Raven016 wrote: »

I don't need a roadmap.
I'll test whatever I want and maybe focus on what was added latest.

If everyone decides to “test whatever I want” let’s hope Intrepid still has a way to gather quality data and feedback without a roadmap.

It would be a shame for an enthusiastic tester to be locked out of Alpha 2 … simply because another (maybe focused) player signed up at an earlier date.

I think most agree that quality feedback puts the game on the right track for Beta and launch.

darthaden

they actually did give direction on what to test during A1 at times. Steven and the team would summon players to world bosses and other events in order stress test the servers. A1 was more of a technical alpha and not a content, balance, or glitch test so there wasn't really any point in asking players to do X thing regularly.

My assumption for A2 is they will ask players to test specific updates and give feedback but won't force players to only engage in said update

Mfcrackers

Remember... One of the key points of this game is NO HAND HOLDING....

CROW3

If you’re unsure what to test try to break the nearest thing. And document the heck out of anything you break.

Spif

I think that rather than a roadmap, we will simply be limited in what we can test. Example, only half of one continent is open at A2 release, level is capped at 15 or 25, nodes are capped at 3, and only 6 base archetypes are available.

At some later time, they open up another starting area, and at the same time make another class available.

Then they wipe, and only allow us to start on the other continent with 2 starting zones.

The trouble with IS asking us to test something, is that thing being zerged. Which is only good for a stress test

Raven016

Taleof2Cities wrote: »

Raven016 wrote: »

I don't need a roadmap.
I'll test whatever I want and maybe focus on what was added latest.

If everyone decides to “test whatever I want” let’s hope Intrepid still has a way to gather quality data and feedback without a roadmap.

It would be a shame for an enthusiastic tester to be locked out of Alpha 2 … simply because another (maybe focused) player signed up at an earlier date.

I think most agree that quality feedback puts the game on the right track for Beta and launch.

If you report a bug, they should fix it, even if it was only you who reported it.
There is no value all to test the same feature.
But if the test is about how the balancing feels for a specific class, I might not start playing that class right in that moment unless I have that class. I can do that a bit later too or not at all if I dislike that class. There will be others who like it and can give better feedback.
And if they fix bugs reported previously without mentioning that in log updates, some players will like checking if those were fixed or not. Some will not be just bug fixes but also balancing changes.

If players spread and do everything the chances are higher to get different reports than duplicate ones.

Why would you need a roadmap for testing?
How can it help you to know many months in advance what features come?

Dygz

I would not expect a "roadmap" for testing.
It can be helpful for devs to give some guides directing testers to focus on specific features, mechanics or locations.

Alpha 1 was mostly about networking... so, we could pretty much explore whatever we wanted to.
Sometimes we would be directed to attend Sieges.

Songcaller

I think the devs will do special events to try and break stuff. Much like Apoc fixed the back end. Much the same as the sieges tested the sieges etc. A2 will be long and arduous. We'll test everything over and over again.

Calicobard

Its all speculation until it happens. I would hope the devs will let us know whats new so we know what to try and break next. I have been in multiple betas and during those they would say we have added x zone please head to x area and test everything and let us know up to and including missing quest texts, missing or broken scripting/voiceovers, reward itemization (was the reward content worth your time to do), is the storyline believable/fun, what did you like/dislike about your experience. etc etc I would spend more time giving feedback than i did exploring content as i wanted the game to be great. This was way back in the day when i tested an Everquest expansion. I also did the Age of Conan beta among others. Some programs or companies I wont mention due to NDA restrictions such companies could still enforce years later due to their army of effective lawyers. Looking forward to Alpha 2 and putting my experience to work for Intrepid!

TheDarkSorcerer

I would not mind an optional survey pop-up once a week or after each change or add where we can select a scale 1-10 and write additional comments etc.

Roshen

Hey all,

Alpha Two is about testing a product in development. For it to be a successful test, it’s important for the team to get info about what’s working and what isn’t, so we can iterate on all of our systems during this testing period.

Sometimes this may be focused feedback on certain things. If that’s the case, we’ll definitely let people know what we want feedback on. When we do this, it may be through the form of feedback requests, similar to what we do currently after livestreams. It may also be through surveys or other methods.

Even when we don’t ask for specific things to be tested, the empirical data we get from testers during Alpha Two, like logs that show how players interact with systems, items, and other player metrics, are hugely valuable to us.

We spoke a little bit about this during the Ashen Forge interview with Steven in July 2023. Here’s a timestamp to where this is being discussed.