New Releases

As a Technology Manager ...

8 months playing this game , i never see one single release without a fix on the next day. Right now u made me think :
1 - Why do DSO have a test server?
2 - Is the test server a "Mirror" of the other servers? - If its a mirror the error was supposed to be noticed before the release.
3 - Are all the servers a mirror of each other?
Can we think Tegan is different than Agaton and so it goes? Cause if this is true DSO team are about to loose control.
4 - Im sure all the test server users checked the group improvement. Did they noticed the error ? ( i wont say bug anymore)
If they did , why was not fixed?
If they didnt , wth are they doing but being amazed on playing stuffs before the other players?
Are u working with really test players?
5 - Test users must be in touch with someone from the dev team. One of u must say : "hey test guy, today we introduced group finder. We need ur help to detect problems , so pls add , delete , change maps , go to events , check drops. when u see something wrong pls let us know so we wont have troubles in the official servers , ty". Someone must guide them !

Something is really wrong inside DSO team. I mean sometimes looks like u didnt studied neither have any experience with development and servers administration.

TC guys and gl. U really need

 

I kinda agree with you. When I got the test server link, I was thinking going there, but that would need new account and starting playing from scratch, apparently. And that is not what I want to do.
Apparently not so many others also....

To get real long time players to seriously test using test server, I would (if being responsible for testing & drakensang well being) copy all users from (some) existing server into test server & add in test server to their account e.q. 200000 andermants. The amount should be according the level of user in exponential fashion (e.q. below 10 users would get 2000, below 30 20000, below 40 50000 & 45 would get 200000)

That would get ppl interested in playing there & testing new features. I would even play there

However, because bigpoint have to make money to be able to continue development (?) of drakensang, there should be something, what would prevent using only test server without paying any fees. Maybe the best idea would be to from time to time wipe out database in test server with content of real server & start from scratch again.

Other possibility would of course to just make testing possible for premium account holders...

My few cents of worth

 

Software Development Cycle

1. Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free.
2. Product is tested. 20 bugs are found.
3. Programmer fixes 10 of the bugs and explains to the testing department that the other 10 aren't really bugs.
4. Testing department finds that five of the fixes didn't work and discovers 15 new bugs.
5. Repeat three times steps 3 and 4.
6. Due to marketing pressure and an extremely premature product announcement based on overly-optimistic programming schedule, the product is released.
7. Users find 137 new bugs.
8. Original programmer, having cashed his royalty check, is nowhere to be found.
9. Newly-assembled programming team fixes almost all of the 137 bugs, but introduce 456 new ones.
10. Original programmer sends underpaid testing department a postcard from Fiji. Entire testing department quits.
11. Company is bought in a hostile takeover by competitor using profits from their latest release, which had 783 bugs.
12. New CEO is brought in by board of directors. He hires a programmer to redo program from scratch.
13. Programmer produces code he believes is bug-free...

...........

 

Hilarious, but true.

The only way out of the cycle is to break it.
Change the programmer's contract: payment after bug-free is delivered. Bugs evaporate; customers never see most of them.
Pay the staff by the job completed, rather than by the lines of code written (by the hour). Programs shrink tremendously. Overhead and maintenance costs plummet.
Let product quality be the driving market strategy, and word of mouth becomes the major marketing expense (free!).
Impress the end-gamers in high-level maps, with the same detail and error-free play as the beginners in the starter maps. Keep them coming back for more.

If it doesn't work, do something else.

 

I think there are two primary issues for the test server. One is trust, the other is inability to replicate live server.

On the first-lack of trust; Imagine the scenario "we want you to test the group finder function. Report items that do not work as advertised." They get 15 reports of broken things with the group finder, 300 reports of "it should work this way" or "I don't like the feature" or "make it do this instead", and another 300 reporting things that have nothing to do with the group function. It turns in to a waste of time wading through all the drivel, so instead of this, they task their own employees to develop characters, give them all the toys and levels and tell them what to test. These employees are very smart on the mechanics of the game, but are not real players with all the finesse developed over years of experience, so things go undiscovered.

The second-inability to replicate. Many of the bugs are obviously related to server connectivity, latency, routing, and server stress. When all the testing is being done "locally" with minimal server stress, the bugs do not appear. It reminds me of a maintenance ticket a pilot filed after landing. He reported "Aircraft vibrates at 240K IAS." (240 knots Indicated Airspeed) The maintenance reply on the ticket; "Could not replicate on ground."

On a side note: Since the inevitable hotfix is coming after every new release, maybe they could release both dates ahead of time, giving the community a couple of days after release to test and report. They could even provide guidance on what specifically to look for. Oh wait never mind, 15 reports of bugs and 60000 other reports.

 

BigPapa you rock xD