Hi,
I did a forum search and didn't see much on this so I though I'd reach out. I'm pledged to participate in Alpha and I'm wondering what Alpha testing consists of as far as how the devs run day-to-day testing and such. I'm imagining they direct you toward certain content, classes, etc? From what I have read, we will likely have all or most of Kingsreach to play in, but beyond that I just don't have any experience with alpha testng and am curious what it will be like.
Thanks.
I think we will have to wait and see. Alpha testing in Pantheon will likely be quite different than many of us are used to with other games due to the sheer number of players because of the donation structure. For example, I was in Alpha for Vanguard and there was never more than 20 people online at any given time including multiple devs. Chat was world wide. Even then most, if not all, of the zones were available 24/7.
Currently, in prealpha, testing is going in phases and the game is not always available to test. We will have to wait and see but I do encourage everyone to go in with a mindset of testing and not just playing. Offer as much feedback as you can.
If the test server can't be up 24x7 by Alpha? Then it's not Alpha ready. As in, it doesn't meet the criteria.
If they choose not to have the server up 24x7 during Alpha? That's their choice, but it would be a weird one, given how it was done for Vanguard.
We will release the expectations/directions to Alpha testing once we get close, my friend, for now, we are concentrating on working with our Pre-ALpha testers to get the game ready for the much larger numbers of Alpha testing.
We won't, however, push anything through to the next stage of testing without it being ready as it will only hinder development and delay progress while giving our testers a negative experience so please understand that when we push things back that we are just as bummed as you folks but it is for a good reason.
Let me share my experience with alpha testing other games. This does not mean that VR will run theirs the same, it's just experience from past Alpha tests that I have participated in. So, for the most part, alpha testing is going to consist of repitition, you may get board of it but remember, this isn't a preview of the game. If you turn it into a preview of a game you will miss stuff which is important for the devs to fix.
My past alpha tests we were allowed to group up and test bosses, however, the alpha team focused on a small part of the game at a time. So at one point we would be given 2 or 3 zones at a time, and there was hundreds of us, running around, checking dialogue, engaging random enemies, jumping around on rooftops, and often times they would get specific with us. I don't remember what post it was but someone testing one game found a hole in the world, that is something that VR would probably pick a bunch of random people to go test that spot. Like I said it will get boring but remember, if you fail to locate any bugs in a bug riddled game, you can't blame the company for their launch failure if the bug was not reported. Alpha is probably one of the most important stages of testing, because this is the ground work for the game. In Beta that's when you can really do what you want, test what you want, but don't forget above all, your job is to test, if you fail to test, you fail to prepare VR for any bugs that they might have missed before launch.
However, since they are using pre-alpha testers, the ground work may already be in, and you may just be double checking their work. But for the most part, all stages of testing are for bugs, and most important server and zone stability. If a zone starts lagging a server because it's overloaded, then there is a problem, and you guys just helped create a smoother launch, click everything, jump on top of everything, do it all, explore and go poop on a lawn or something, find the things that were not intended to be there, and even if you think for a second that this could be a bug, report it. If you aren't sure, report it. Heck, if it looks nothing like a bug but you think that doesn't look right, report it. All of this feedback will come together and make a better game. The more you report and the more you find as a tester the more successful launch day will be.
Hope this helps get you some insight, it will be boring but at the same time fun. The game pretty much boils down to it's testers for a smooth launch.
TL/DR: Report everything, even if unsure.
EDIT - the nature of alpha testing is to be helpful.
That is all.
vjek said:If the test server can't be up 24x7 by Alpha? Then it's not Alpha ready. As in, it doesn't meet the criteria.
If they choose not to have the server up 24x7 during Alpha? That's their choice, but it would be a weird one, given how it was done for Vanguard.
I have a feeling it'll likely be a full uptime with a 1-2 day downtime cycle per week. Possibly on Tuesday or Tuesday and Wednesday. I pulled server metrics from every MMO since WoW and populations obviously spiked around Friday through to Sunday mid day, but the lowest population days have always been Tuesday roughly. That was the same for every game which I guess makes sense.
