Test server

[Hellsvip]

I know the us has a test sever (aka pendragon)

Why do we not have access to a similar one on the goa servers?

Would be damn nice to be able to actually try out our specs And i know there is a private one reserved for special people to test things, but regardless would be nice to have it open to all members.

Would it cut people from rvr, i highly doubt people are going to spend all day on a test server where few people are going to log on to a large degree but will transfer a char over just to try out different specs.

 

[Alan]

see : https://forums.freddyshouse.com/showthread.php?p=2801096

We don't have a public test server because we don't do the same sort of public testing that Mythic do in the US.

Pendragon isn't for people to test new specs on, that's just a bonus feature. It's for balance testing of new patches and general game balance tests. Neither of which are done by us here in Europe. Mythic need that data to develop new patches and apply tweaks to patches already in development and any data from a European test server would be irrelevant to that. The sort of testing that we do - stability testing and translation tests - are done on internal only test servers by both ourselves and by Mythic.

And please note, this will NOT turn into another thread about freeshards !

 

[Chronictank]

edit : tears beat me to it

 

[Hellsvip]

Well that bonus feature is a very nice time saving feature.

I do hope none of you e&e actually use said bonus feature at an advantage over the rest of us :touch: As i do remember at some point we did have it active to the public and i can not remember a huge zerg of people swarming all over it.

And i am relatively sure the "could be deleted or shut down at any point" Is a perfectly fine risk seeing as we are only testing our characters from a copy of them and not our actual ones.

What is the actual constraint that would make opening it up to the public such a horrendous thing.

Ie can we not have slots reserved for set amount of e&e or a prevent it ever going over 100 people.

Hell maybe even ask mythic if they would let us all have access to theirs since well as chronic and english said it does seem our only option to enjoy that bonus feature is freeshards.

But i would much rather use a test server for ease over that.

But then again good job by GOA nice to see that the yanks want something we have Power barrels FTW.:worthy:

http://vnboards.ign.com/daoc_general_board/b5176/97709111/p1/?20

 

[old.Whoodoo]

Deja vu...

1. US has test servers to test patches on an everyday basis. This is for development, GOA dont develop the game and never will.
2. Gorre is for mainly testing languages, not just patches, and is reset on a daily basis, all toons, languages and systems get reset.
3. What language should it be in?
4. The last time GOA made it public, there was a huge outcry that no one could get on it as it got invaded by every german and his buffbot.
5. Gorre is on a much lesser spec server than the main ones, and cannot take the punishment thats dished out by 3000 players "testing their specs", or in other words, zerging emain like they did during open beta.
6. GOA got 9million Rightnows complaining about issues on Gorre that didnt relate to true testing, this takes them away from real issues.
7. Only a small minority would actually test specs, the rest just want to zerg and use it as a normal server with the bonus of /level 50 and gimme good gear.

However, what would be a good idea would be a test zone server, a single zone in PvP mode with safe areas, where nothing is gained from killing and it could be used as pure spec testing. But its not easy to impliment, would have severe problems with coding and licencing (for GOA if Mythic wont do it) and would take up resources best spent elsewhere, but its a nice idea.

I was going to say here we go again, as this topic has been raised over and over in the last 4 years, I would say that it hasnt happened yet, and never will.

 

[Hellsvip]

Again if it is going to have problems with zerging then cap the amount of players on it.

If you said gorre is used to test languages why should it change. We just want access to really test specs to a large degree a nice bonus feature we do get from the void.

But it would be nice to not have to turn to the dark side to test when it is probably feasible to implement a cap on players and so on.

Pretty much it should not matter on the languages used on the server could even set it to change every other day to a new one would not make a huge difference if we were spec testing we would just grab a dictionary pull it off do our thing be off happily to build it.

As for the Rightnow problem issue No idea on that one perhaps have it in caps when you enter the server

DO NOT REPORT ANYTHING YOU SEE HEAR DOES NOT EXIST THERE IS NO SPOON

Change languages so its clear for all

Then do not grant /level 50 to the average joe player just give us char/copy and disable all rp gains for us.

i am relatively sure gms would probably be able to grant you level 50's for any specifics they wanted and like other servers why can we not just use char copy so we only can use our own. Which as we can not further it becomes futile to play it for anything other than spec testing.

 

[Thadius]

http://vnboards.ign.com/daoc_general_board/b5176/97709111/p1/?20

Classic

Man I thought Sanya's huband would be pissed.

Too bad GOA has better player centered content then EA Mythic.

 

[Tilda]

Ah yes, this week cannot get better.
We've had freeshard whine, mod whine, now we need some E&E test server whine.

If you searched the forums for the previous test servers you'd know this:
Mythics test server is used to test new code changes, for example, making toa easier, giving sorcs aoe stun, or whatever. They depend on other players to play on it so that they can sort out the ballance issues on test server.
Mythic also have internal test servers, on these they test server stability etc.
As GoA do not develop the game, they do not require an external "hey guys is aoe stun on sorcs op'ed" test server.
However because their servers are different to the Mythic ones, they do require an internal server stability/translation server where bugs can be picked up.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

Again if it is going to have problems with zerging then cap the amount of players on it.

They did that, first at 2500, then 3000 then 3500 and people still complained, then it started crashing...

If you said gorre is used to test languages why should it change. We just want access to really test specs to a large degree a nice bonus feature we do get from the void.

It changes because there are 5 languages in euro that GOA cater for, again, Gorre is for testing to make sure things in the game work, not for personal gain.

But it would be nice to not have to turn to the dark side to test when it is probably feasible to implement a cap on players and so on.

See above, capping wont help anything, you cant discorouge people abusing what its meant for.

Pretty much it should not matter on the languages used on the server could even set it to change every other day to a new one would not make a huge difference if we were spec testing we would just grab a dictionary pull it off do our thing be off happily to build it.

Im sure you would be happy telling the germans "tough shit its our turn to play!" or to see "Yu performe de Splittenzeheader perfectamondo" while trying to work out what style "Dumhittinindeheadenzepancake" is.

As for the Rightnow problem issue No idea on that one perhaps have it in caps when you enter the server

DO NOT REPORT ANYTHING YOU SEE HEAR DOES NOT EXIST THERE IS NO SPOON

You really think people will listen, yup, like all those who radar do, not.

Then do not grant /level 50 to the average joe player just give us char/copy and disable all rp gains for us.

Fair doos about the gains, but as Req and co have said before, /charcopy is not something thats done easily (its a manual process the devs do with the DB, which I beleibe GOA are not allowed to do) and GOA dont have access to those tools.

i am relatively sure gms would probably be able to grant you level 50's for any specifics they wanted and like other servers why can we not just use char copy so we only can use our own. Which as we can not further it becomes futile to play it for anything other than spec testing.

See above again, beleive it or not, the GMs do have other things going on other than pleasing individuals by copying their toons over, like bug fixes, rightnow and patch testing.

My other response to this is, want to try new specs, there are many ways to respec in game, Dragon raids, PoC raids, TG raids, /buyrespec. It seems the easier Mythic make this game, the more people want it made easier. Dont mention the cost of these things cause thats a copout, and tough if you dont like PvE - its always been part of the game and always will, live with it, im sure 1 hour a week on a dragon raid wont kill you.

 

[Thadius]

It seems the easier Mythic make this game, the more people want it made easier.

True

Expect a toa whine ina few months...

 

[Alan]

And please note, this will NOT turn into another thread about freeshards !

For those who missed it.

 

[Ctuchik]

As i do remember at some point we did have it active to the public and i can not remember a huge zerg of people swarming all over it.

acually i can. one time only but there WAS that one time

all the other servers were done for some reason (patching i think?) and Gorre was the only server open and think we had cap pop on that server all rushing in on that lvl 30 BG we had back then... u have no idea the magnitude of zerging that went on in there bet we had well over 400 ppl in that tiny BG

was THE most fun ive ever had. that keep changed so fast u could hardly keep track of who owned it

 

[Hellsvip]

By the way tears slap tildai around with a happy stick some

He needs love seems depressed.

Anyhow well nice of people to all go through i am still of the view it would be nice to have and i never at any point said to stop anyone going on during specific times just cap the amount if that was more feasible nor taking turns in any way just permitting the language to change and hope a small natural order appears.

Either way Tilda SMILE :touch:

 

[Shadowen]

TBH,

I really don't understand how DaoC is put together, realistically the texts that make the game German, french, English or what not are basically database lookups. However if I connect to the german server, My local gui suddenly reports everything in German..

Realistically there should be no reason that a customer can use the client they like (english, german, french), and the server simply delivering the correct language version to the client. Thus the only difference between the servers would be that when you chat to other players, they *might* not speak your language. Though it could be a symptom of something I won't mention.

If they used that technique, they would also have the option of merging servers with different languages (if that would become necessary at some stage), as well as holding gorre open 24x7 with all languages.

The reason Gorre comes close to collapse when it is open is because it is so rarely open, thus when it is, everyone rushes there to test what ever their pet test project is (I went there with 2 accounts to test out SB specs). Of course you will then crash hard, because of the load.

Keeping the test server open 24x7, removing RP gains, will quickly reduce it to the level of pendragon, with 20-50 regular players (mostly testers and team leads), and maybe 20-50 extra people testing out things that they find odd about their chars, figuring out what the patch meant to their chars. Pendragon's average population is around 100 people, usually much lower (I played in the US for near on 3 years).

The really fun part of pendragon is that it is occassinally used for some rather unorthodox fun. Like one day thidranki was opened for all lvl 50's, and about 10 from each realm went there, considering that this was OF, an sb would climb the wall PA the lord, and the keep changed hands, you actually had to defend the lord - that day of playing was actually the MOST fun I have ever had in DaoC. Basically because it is not a production server, and is a test server, a bored dev, or CS can do som radical changes for some fun, and testing.

But doing as GOA is doing, will always lead to the server being overloaded, because the rare chance you get for testing, means everyone (and I mean everyone) rushes there to do the tests they wish to do.

My recommendation (though GOA won't probably ever hear it, nor listen to it if they do hear it) would be to open the server like Pendragon, keep the language english (unless they are testing a specific language), let people use the server for testing specs, if it crashes - reboot it at convinience, no need to keep an eye on it. Then they would find that there won't be a bum rush on the server, though if a patch is particularly interesting, they might find a significant number of players on the server.

People will quickly tire of the test server, because you really can't get RR's (unless it's being tested), GOA can even turn XP off if they want to make it even more uninteresting.

regards
shadowen.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

People will quickly tire of the test server, because you really can't get RR's (unless it's being tested), GOA can even turn XP off if they want to make it even more uninteresting.

Then someone would whinge they cant test their RAs or MLs, give an inch some idiot wants a mile.

I like the thid idea tho, tbh after the huge GOA event in the BG a couple of years ago, its doable on a normal server, which tbh is where it belongs.

 

[IainC]

Our testserver doesn't work the same way as Pendragon. We don't transfer characters like Mythic do. Test characters are created on the server as new characters and the character database gets wiped regularly.
It's not really possible to recreate characters there unless you were willing to refarm, craft and SC all your gear.

Ultimately though the test servers aren't for this kind of testing. We are mostly concerned with stability testing and language bugs, and don't report any kind of balance test data back to Mythic as they poll that themselves from their own tests. Making Gorre publically available would be largely a waste of time and resources. The only times we've done it before were for very large changes (NF, housing) and we found that the useful feedback we got was practically nil. Mostly people logged in and /duelled rather than did any actual testing. If you really want to do testing then there are many ways of getting the various types of respec which will allow you to test your characters on a live server under real conditions.

 

[Bahumat]

If you really want to do testing then there are many ways of getting the various types of respec which will allow you to test your characters on a live server under real conditions.

yeah, and all you gotta do is solo a dragon.

lets be serious, to respec you need to do the dragon with a smaller group so you can get 2 respecs, if you dont like your new spec your up shit creek without a second respec.

 

[Martok]

yeah, and all you gotta do is solo a dragon.

lets be serious, to respec you need to do the dragon with a smaller group so you can get 2 respecs, if you dont like your new spec your up shit creek without a second respec.

or you can also buy respecs from your trainer, buy other peoples respecs witch are very cheap atm on pry/excal cluster.

 

[eggy]

yeah, and all you gotta do is solo a dragon.

lets be serious, to respec you need to do the dragon with a smaller group so you can get 2 respecs, if you dont like your new spec your up shit creek without a second respec.

FG dragon kill gives 3 full skill respecs each. Easy to do on Albion at least.

 

[Hellsvip]

Respecs from trainer increase in price over time, stones from dragons and so on you have to hope that regular farms are maintained or prices go up.

As said server does not support the character transfer which would be all that was needed to test ra's if rp gain was removed as you would have to get yourself to those levels to test it out.

As for the dueling Well you lot seem to have severe objections to when we start dueling with any form of methodical competitive state amongst ourselves That would offer a nice viable way to tell us to sling our hook and do it somewhere else.

 

[Killswitch]

TBH,

I really don't understand how DaoC is put together, realistically the texts that make the game German, french, English or what not are basically database lookups. However if I connect to the german server, My local gui suddenly reports everything in German..

I worked for a while doing OS localisation (basically translating the operating system into European languagues) and it is not trivial. Unless the software is designed from the ground up to be translated and unless this is done correctly at every stage, the smallest change to language files can lead to the most extreme problems. Simple example would be Unicode and ISO locale information. Both are common, both do roughly the same thing, but one uses two bytes of memory per character and one uses one. Take that, add a hardcoded string in some obscure place and you have a nice bug to hunt down...at 3am...on a major release day...the first week you worked there. Also, don't get me started on sort orders for Eastern European countries

Anyway, GOA need a test server, Euro players don't.

 

[MadsKaizer]

the grass is always greener, here is what a someone on VN wrote

Seem like GOA knows how the keep the player base happy, just look at the European subscription numbers versus the US ones.

IMHO EA should turn future development of DAOC over to GOA. Just keep the Mythic Art team since they seem to be the best in the business.

 

[Bahumat]

the grass is always greener, here is what a someone on VN wrote

Yeah but thats a GOA employee posting...