Point of Test Server

Hello. I'm seriously wondering why you don't give us Level 40-45 characters for thorough testing? I'm seriously not going to spend 100 hours on test server to level up to 45 and I'd really like to help you with testing the events. But It's hard to test events with my weak level 5 character.

I have few suggestions on how to improve the gameplay:
- Give each player premium account
- Give every active player that participated at least 10 hours on test server permanently a level 40(45) character.

There are events such as Sargon's where you need level 40 to test the items like Sargon's set etc.. Also It's always good to know the stats of upcoming items and what are their stats going to be at level 45.

Thanks and have a nice day.

 

The real, ugly truth about the test server is that they don't really care too much about testing anything. Unless there is a bug that completely shuts down the server, anything that gets to the test server is going to go to the live server. One of the mods was the source of this information, in a post some time back. I didn't just make this up.

 

@JudgeCZ , while I can appreciate why you would want a full level character, I can see the benefit of low and mid level characters, especially when testing new events. There is need to see if the events are too tough for for low level characters. However, I concur with Sev, as it seems that whatsoever bugs are reported are ignored.

 

If they gave everyone a premium account, then everyone would play test server and no one would play live servers lol. It would be "nice" if they did a random, time limited, 24/36/48 hr premium, server wide, once a month or so, unannounced so you have to log in daily to see if its active. But then they would have to care about the non (dev/mod/admin/friends of), players on TS to even consider it.

Truth be told, to them we are at the very least, an annoyance, and at the very most, detested and unwanted on TS. Despite the fact that some of us actually want to help, have the knowledge and skill set to do so, and can contribute in a productive manner. But alas, we are shunned and ignored.

 

LMAO! (sry but i have nothing better for my situation)
The Mods have told us themselves, that TS IS NOT EVEN FOR TESTING! The only thing they test on TS, is about the game chrashes every 2 min or such things. When something is on TS, they won´t fix more bugs before releasing.
I have complained A LOT about that fact: http://da.bigpoint.com/drasaonline/board/threads/why-bp-why.13375/

And just think about this: The bug with Ring of Death shouldn´t have reached liveservers, they should have tested the bug, but they didn´t fix it if they even tested the new quest... The thing i hate most of all in this game, is the "Known Issues list" They KNOW it, but do they do ANYTHING about it? NO!

 

If every player would get lvl 40-45 character, free premium and not talking about andermants and other currencies, they would not be playing on liveservers at all. Events have to be tested with all level characters, your level 5 character may find a bug, what level 45 character wouldn't notice. And in events, it's important that the monsters strength is balanced well for low level players. You can test events with your level 5 character and give feedback about the difficulty of events and report bugs in here forums and mods will pass it to community management and quality assurance.

There are several normal players who have + level 40 character in stable, they have worked hard to level up their characters. You can decide to level up your character on test server or keep asking high level characters in here forums.

I understand you very well, that you want high level characters, good equipment and a tons of anders. But we should remember that stablebuild has not always been public test server. In 2011-2012 spring, it was only for QA and moderators. Now all players can enter it, test new events and patches and have some fun time. Try to remember that when complaining about weak characters you have.

And about Sargon items; Item's don't have to be tested by many players. Of course it's nice to see your character wearing new powerfull unique items, but do you really need them? And if you look through different language forums, you usually find stats of new level 40 and/or level 45 items.

I haven't seen that moderators post but I can tell it's not completely true. Every patch is first in "devs only" test server, where the major bugs and crashes are being fixed. When the patch version is stable enough, it goes to stablebuild, the public test server. Patches are being tested there about 1,5-2 weeks. Bugs are being fixed every day, and almost every day stablebuild receives newer version of the patch, with less bugs. I could name dozens of bugs, which I have reported and which have been fixed before release. And of course I'm not the only bug reporter here, QA testers report bugs, moderators report bugs and normal players report bugs. Couple of events have been postponed because of my last minute bug reports, so I know very well that bug reports aren't being ignored.

None of the bug reports are being ignored, usually the problem is that there isn't enough time to fix all bugs, sad but true. But I've heard some rumors that this year will bring a change to this problem

I like your idea Doc, hopefully mods pass it on.
If you would be unwanted on TS, it wouldn't be a public server. It would be only for QA team in that case. QA testers don't usually have time to chat with anyone in game, even if they would like to answer to you. But often they still read your whispers and if you report bug, they'll check it out. If you ask high level character, currencies, items or anything like that, they naturally ignore your whisper. They are doing their job, they are testing new patches and events for you, so those can reach liveservers. It's not their job to to give you free stuff, matter of fact they are not usually allowed to give you anything.

All bugs aren't easy to fix, it takes time. Now, if all existing minor and major bugs would be fixed and the game would become completely bug-free, there wouldn't be a patch or events for a month or two.

I agree with you about ring of death bug and I'm sure it has been tested a lot before release. But sometimes they just miss something, they are just normal people, everyone makes mistakes sometimes I don't like the known issues list either, but hopefully we can get rid of it this year.

And if you are wondering about how I know so much, I was mod and a tester for a long time, and even I'm not a mod any longer, I still haven't left the game completely.

See you in stable!

 

Dude , others have send humans to the moon , and this EDIT can't fix a stupid bug ? C'mon man , you can see , they don't give a EDIT about us , only thing they want is that the game is "working"(in a way) so the players dont leave=put more money in game , thats all!!!

 

CemalRavage, I can understand your frustration, like can many players and moderators in here forums. DSO has caused a headaches for me too, but I still like the game. There are bugs in all games and dso will never be a completely bug-free game either. But I didn't come back in here DSO forums to discuss about this, I was hoping I could enlighten you a little bit about test server and bugs in game. Just try to understand that devs and QA testers are doing the best they can, so are moderators and admins in here forums.

 

Probable you have right , its not completly the developers team foult , its of bigpoint because they dont hire to many developers for the game , a hand of people can't make wonders , but bigpoint's plan is like i sayd , to keep the game playable and thats all

 

@CemalRavage Why they don't hire new devs? They get paid so much money from us and they put it to ads. I think that smarter thing will be to make game better than having good advertisement (just my opinion).
Because when you make game better then you get new players. When you pay for ads you don't have better game and you lose players.

 

What i sayd is a theory , don't know if the DSO dev team doesent has too manny peoples , but you can see the bugs , you can see the slow progres of the game , they add content only 2-3 times per year , last science abillity got add 1 year ago , you can see that the content is not preperly tested and ends up on live server full of bugs , probebly there are not too many man to do the job , bugpoint foult!!!
This game is junk , i love it , but its junk , and its only the bugpoint guilt , i still play it cuz i spended so much time/money in this game , thats all that keeps me in the game

 

Oh NO! They fix bugs on TS? Maybe a few, but they don't fix even half part of the bugs! Haven´t you seen the known bug list every time a new release is coming? Haven´t you seen the posts where players point out bugs and they don´t fix those before releasing? sorry, but have you even being paying attention to the releases, bugs and the overload of unfixed issues? BP is doing a hell lot of bad work. And you are saying "usually the problem is that there isn't enough time to fix all bugs", the only one to make the timeline is BP themselves! Who wouldn't wait a week more and get a less bug-overloaded release?
BP´s priority order is nothing but wrong! Rather get the release out quick than slow with but less bugs.

Do not try to argument for BP, they will lose every argument a man can start about this topic. Maybe i can´t talk with strong arguments the whole way, but i have a friend that is able to argument against BP for pretty long time.

Taking BP´s side in an argument about their bugs and money-greed is impossible.

Its just unbelievable that they haven´t started listening yet after 3 years shouting after them...

Nothing personal, just a game.

 

I've been gone for few months, but I still have read the forums from time to time.

Try to understand that I'm posting here as a normal player, I don't want to take any sides here. I know what I know, and I have stated the facts in my first post. Why BP doesn't have time to fix bugs? Don't ask me, but I'm hoping that it will change soon.

Oh I don't want that to happen, because I may know who that friend of yours is (hopefully I'm wrong)

Sadly, I didn't come to here forums to argue with anyone, so this is my last post in these forums.

 

You may not want to believe it, but it was clearly stated by one of the mods (name withheld, but it starts with a 'C' and ends with an 'o') that if a release makes it to the test server, it is going to go to the live servers in that exact form unless there is a server-crashing bug present in it. If you don't believe that, do some research and find the post yourself.

Now, do the devs/progs use information from the test server for later updates? Probably. But nothing gets tested and modified on the TS before it is released. If it makes it to the TS it is going to be released, bugs and all (except catastrophic bugs). We have had official word that this is true.

 

And that's, kids, reason why every released patch is so bad..

 

If Im not mistaken Bel, You are in a unique position on TS. You obviously have an "in" with either the devs or the mods... maybe both, or maybe an ex-dev or ex-mod ????. So maybe to you, your not unwanted.... But I can say I have experienced it, from them, as well as from you personally. I had the audacity to say "hi" to you one day, and your response was, "who are you?... I dont know you!" and you rode away. This is indicative of the pervasive "ruling class" sentiment towards the rest of us on TS... as if we were lesser life forms of some sort. So, you may be right, "unwanted" may not be the right vernacular, but disliked, shunned, ignored, detested, despised, resented ... is the pronounced feeling on TS towards those of us who are not "in the favor" of the devs/mods. Just because you dont receive that kind of response, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I have never.... never..... asked an admin for anything while on TS and have told many in world chat that they will not get anything by continually posting to chat for anders, lvl'd characters, draken, etc, etc. I gained my lvl 40 DK with no help from anyone!
I know that the admin/dev/QA are at work, and they are there to do a job.
I have stated this before, I am FULLY aware of what TS is supposed to be for and what the role of a "tester" is supposed to be.

Thanks, Doc.

 

Oh well, I need to answer to this one..I'm not very good at keeping promises. No, I'm not a dev, I'm ex-mod like I stated in my first post to avoid confusion.
Sorry about my rudeness in stable. I've received quite many whispers there from people who I don't know. 90% of them are asking am I admin or a tester, can I get andermants and level 40/45 character, what is next event? And usually I answer to everyone patiently, just the same answer that I'm not an admin and I don't have powers to do that or I don't know or I can't tell you that depending on situation. I'm not used to that someone starts conversation with hi.

Those 10% of whispers are from people who I have met in stable. Often I just forget who is who. I may have helped him/her sometimes..but where? I just can't remember everything. And if pvp_characterid characters whisper to me, I always ask do I know you? Seriously, I can't remember all those numbers, all those names look same to me. If I have a feeling that I know this guy, I ask do I know you? And when the player reminds me where I know him/her, it's much nicer to chat. That propably happened in your case too.
I may not reply to whispers if I'm afk or playing another character there (I have many characters I use for testing). I also may receive multiple whispers from several players at the same time, and it's really hard to answer sometimes, specially if pvp_characterid character was first whisperer and I can't answer to him/her with /r hotkey as I already received whisper from other player.

Btw, I'm not always in favor either, so believe me or not, I know what you are talking about.

Sorry again

I may answer to you as well now, and I still havent seen Callisto's post and I didn't find it when searching it. Not everything in stable gets added to liveservers. For example this have not yet been added:

But it doesn't necessarily mean that it doesn't reach liveservers some day. Many things are being modifief before release. For example, original bomb pet was never part of first stellar gold event as it was causing too many problems. It wasn't added back that time, but modified and improved and later, in same release with Myrdosch content expansion it finally reached liveservers. Many maps have been modified before releases, many bugged items have been fixed and modified before release etc.

 

@Belgarion8,

If you have been a mod, you surely know him(good old Theusen aint done yet).

But about that Callisto actually wrote that they don´t fix things on TS, here it is:

You can see it all at my old thread: http://da.bigpoint.com/drasaonline/board/threads/why-bp-why.13375/page-2

I must say, i think it is really stupid by BP to prior in that crazy order. They place the deadlines themselve.
But one thing i just wanna say, Callisto´s first answer(

) was nothing but a very bad move(no offense, but it was really not a good answer, and you already knew the answer of that question! )

I just don´t get why BP don´t change the priorityorder when so many players want them to... It doesn´t make sense to me...

The only thing im using TS for ATM, is seeing about if there is a new release or event. I don´t test them, and i don´t level my lv 10 DK.

 

I personally think test server is quite useless for many reasons. One main reason is there are NO benefits playing test server. I rather spend my time farming and getting stronger rather than wasting my time training a new account.

 

Thanks, Hartvig, for taking the time to find that post by Callisto. That post clearly illustrates the value of the test server.