Public Test Server

[Oh. daesu]

In case you're interest the PTS was delayed(they had said Sept 15 and 19).

It is now..

Sept 22 (special invites)

Sept 26 (public)

Their faq..

http://forums.ubi.com/showthread.php/1490194-About-the-PTS-(Public-Test-Server)-FAQ

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

Hmmm, more delays.  I wonder if this continues to push the timetable back on 1.4, Survival, and Last Stand. 

This is the first time I've read anything on the PTS, since I'm not on PC, and from what  they plan to do with it, I'm surprised they waited 6+ months to implement it.  I think if they created this shortly after they screwed the pooch with 1.1 they could have save some of their customer base. 

Had they used their transparency and come out and said this isn't working so we're going to create a PTS to test future changes.  Even if it was only on PC, that would still give them a larger test than in-house QA to test updates and DLC.  

Maybe I'm too optimistic the PTS will actually result in benefits to the player base...

 

[Oh. daesu]

Yeah, things might be so different if they had put a PTS in back then.

Now, one could joke whether they still have enough PCers to test.

As for release dealys. Who knows, maybe 1.4 will be delayed. Though, i think they have only said October as the release. So really, it's only delayed if the release is push back into November. Hehe. This delay was only a week, so can't see much follow through in affecting the dlcs.

I think it'll be a bit of hit and miss with their promises. They have been very open and honest. So high hopes there. But om the other hand they have demonstrated some ineptitude in what it is *actually* like to play the game. So, grit and bear.

 

[RimBlock]

Not sure what other games have made public test servers available but I think they are stepping out of the isolationist / elitist mentality and actually trying to listen a bit more now and let the community help them fix what they have broken.  TBH there is a good chance that it is at a senior management level that the decision to 'go it alone' without the community was set rather than at a dev / community management level and they could only run with it and take the crap thrown back.

There is also quite a steep learning curve they are going through as well.  Having sensitive data client side is a prime example of a base naivety they started with, thinking the world was a place full of nice people like them.  In reality, the internet is swarming with arsehats :51_scream: .   They probably had the server up and ready to go when someone said "Well that is fine for the good guys but what about if someone tries hacking in / DDOSing / general trolldom ? ".  I would imagine hardening the server and double testing everything is likely the cause for the delays.

What a field day the internet would have if Massive had not adequately tested the test server  :1_grinning: .

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

Now, one could joke whether they still have enough PCers to test.

^Bingo!

As for release dealys. Who knows, maybe 1.4 will be delayed. Though, i think they have only said October as the release. So really, it's only delayed if the release is push back into November. Hehe.

My understanding is that they're going to tweak their 1.4 update based on how it tests.  Depending upon how long it takes to make changes to 1.4, pushing the PTS a week could push 1.4 multiple weeks, move Survival for XB1/PC to November and Survival to December for PS4.  

I do agree with @RimBlock that they probably held it to try and protect against hackers and trolls, but continued delays aren't making things look any better for them.  

 

[quinch1199]

Depending how they present this impacts its effectiveness. 

Other test servers I've used tend to grant players special "press accounts" allowing them access to pretty much instantly all the highest end gear etc. 

So all you get are people running around tooled up totally and not really testing anything substantial and the developer never gets any REAL information back that's helpful. I have hopes this will be different, especially as the first wave is invite only. I do, however, feel it should ALL be invite only. After all this should be Closed Beta Testing of the new game patches.