Should SV get a PTR server once the game hits EA ?

[Farligbonde]

So by looking at the development of mortal online 2 with the current situation that SV has when it comes to how many developers they have and the limited testing capabilities on a larger scale, i think personally that a PTR server would be of great use when the game hits EA.

Why?

• Good for balancing, player can test new balance changes to see if there is anything odd before it goes live.
• Find gamebreaking issues, like we experience during the the current beta.
• It will save both the community and devs headaches and stress when the game not working properly or at all when it's live.
• Player can test new content and if it works, push it live. If not back in the oven and then test again on ptr.

I think this would work as a pretty decent fail-safe to the game. People can test new mechanics/content and if shit hits the fan, player can return to a stable live version and play the game while waiting for the new content to be in a stable state.
Less whining from community and devs can fix the problem without feeling stressed that they must fix a issue as fast as possible so people can play the game.

The PTR would ofc be a copy of the entire game on a test server much like other games does it like Overwatch and Eve online and would only be avalible to people who has bought the game and actively paying subs to avoid freeloaders playing the game.

What do you think, should this be a thing?

EDIT: This should maybe have been posted in feedback/suggestions part of the forum. Mods can move it if they like.

 

[Tzone]

I do think there is some info not getting back to Henrik. He was told that velocity for MC was working which it is not working on live.
He was told Veela clades were working which Runners High is not working which he was suggesting people use.
He was told that Dex was working in regards to weakspots which players in game have almost never seen a weak spot proc.

Maybe this stuff works on the test server but its not working on the beta server we play.

 

[finegamingconnoisseur]

I like the idea, however we need to ensure that the PTR will be extensively used by active players so that it will serve its intended purpose.

Games like EVE Online have 25k-30k+ active players so new patches can be tested extensively, but even then they sometimes have to pull the new patch after it goes live because something unexpected was found which was not picked up on the PTR.

MO2 will need a sizeable army of testers in order to make the PTR work as hard as it could, as otherwise bugs and glitches will just slip through into the live server where everyone is playing on.

 

[Farligbonde]

I like the idea, however we need to ensure that the PTR will be extensively used by active players so that it will serve its intended purpose.

Games like EVE Online have 25k-30k+ active players so new patches can be tested extensively, but even then they sometimes have to pull the new patch after it goes live because something unexpected was found which was not picked up on the PTR.

MO2 will need a sizeable army of testers in order to make the PTR work as hard as it could, as otherwise bugs and glitches will just slip through into the live server where everyone is playing on.

Yes i agree on these thoughts. Ofc some bugs will make it through since some bugs are so rare, but i think these major gamebreaking bugs and bugs that occurs often will be caught pretty quickly.

Maybe SV could give players that actively test things some kind of "points" like bug catching points or something, that could be traded in for subscription.
Or some other solution that gives players that actively test some kind of value for taking the time to help devs with the development..

 

[Tzone]

They should allow people onto the PTS when persistence hits. Having crashes and bug like we have now is very annoying but this is just a Alpha/Beta.
It would be extremely bad if they let this happen again during the actual game.

So they should open up the test server two weeks before patch and then the week before the patch. This would keep the population high in game while allowing people to give feed back two weeks before any balance changes or test for bugs the week before patch. Balance changes usually get shoved down peoples throats if its the week before. Having two weeks allows them to make changes if they want to with out holding up the rest of the patch.

The in game report function needs a screenshot feature added also.

 

[PatWins]

Yes, this is critical. MO is too deep of a game for a small test team to catch every bug/issue.

These patches need a large amount of testers to verify there are no game breaking problems prior to going live.

Once the game is released and people are paying monthly subs, consumers won’t take kindly to bugs/crashes which cause them to lose progress or prevent them from playing the game all together.

 

[Weathermore]

Yes there should be a PTR with current test server rules (x100 skill gain)

 

[MolagAmur]

Yes. It needed one 10 years ago. There is FAR too many things in this game and as history has proven certain code can break the most random things (like deleting an entire town) that can easily be overlooked by whoever is testing.