Ubisoft wants you to go to Sweden

[quinch1199]

Ubisoft has said they plan to have a Public Test Server for Division PC.  no date, so may not by 1.4.

My experience of Public Test Servers is mainly pretty negative (for MMO's). Players don't actually "test" anything, all that happens is they load up test accounts with full access to everything and naturally all the players do is load up with the highest level gear and run about trolling anyone with any intent to actually TEST the basic or core aspects of a game.

CLOSED Beta tests on INVITE ONLY Test Servers where developers can quickly ban players and also issue specific test sequences to perform are the only way anything gets any real testing. 

Does Ubisoft literally have NO game development experience or something?!?

 

[quinch1199]

Best experience I had was with either Fractured Space or a similar MMO space combat game. 

It was a CBT, invite only (but we're talking several 100-1000+ players). They told you when the server was available on their forums, gave specific tasks they wanted to be done that sequence and tested, you HAD to post screen shots and details of the test results on the same thread and if you didn't post for 3 or so cycles you were removed from the beta. 

They wanted genuine testing, genuine feedback. You literally couldn't play normally until you'd tested some of the daily tasks set and then they restricted what equipment (ships etc) were available so they could monitor in game PvP balancing.

There were separate OPEN beta tests which were primary for load testing on servers and general performance tests for players to check rig performance...they never attempted or expected solid game development information from an OPEN server access. 

It doesn't happen!

 

[quinch1199]

Ok, so it seems like I’m having a rant but I am annoyed. I’m annoyed that so few of the “top line” AAA-title releasing developers seem to EVER engage early enough via closed (but user based) testing programmes anymore.

They seem obsessed to maintain secrecy but also prevent anyone non-conformist or from within their own teams to touch their precious product until it’s far too late to change anything before release.

FOR GODS SAKE … let players BREAK your game! Let them into controlled, limited access Alpha & Beta stage development servers and let them BREAK it. The real tolerance of a game is contact with actual gamers. It was abundantly clear from early streams that Massive/Ubisoft employee’s had little to know idea how to play their game or how it operated in the “wild” … yes, playing the game isn’t their job…and it shouldn’t be BUT IT’S THE PUBLICS JOB TO DO SO!

Let the public in to do exactly that.

When was the last time you heard of a AAA title ALPHA TEST being open to … forum members or members of Origin/Battlenet etc?? Some of the bugs and glitches should have been found in Alpha play but they weren’t…why? Because no one actually tested the game as a Gamer. Sure they tested but only as a Developer would …

… the two are utterly different! A Dev doesn’t want to break his game or force it outside its parameters to find glitches.

You could exit the damn MAP and into unreleased content for gods sake!! A gamer never misses that… developers do (obviously).

This makes me insanely angry. In the Olden days …. Games got really tested, months of genuine ALPHA testing, including closed alpha access to public of a raw, crashy, buggy game…weeks of genuine CLOSED BETA testing with public access to find bugs, exploits, balancing. There was none of this Open Beta only nonsense we get now.

Battlefield 1 … Open beta? HOW IS THIS A BETA TEST AT ALL?!? All it is, is another marketing tool. Nothing will or can be changed really before its release. It’s a pure Demo…not a Beta at all….stop lying to the gamers!

 

[RimBlock]

In the sake of not enraging @quinch1199 I offer full disclosure that I am looking at rekindling development on my own game I was working on a couple of years back but will be building on UE4 rather than ARMA3.  

Getting up to speed on World Machine for building the island terrain.

I will be implementing a closed beta when (if) it gets to that stage.

Currently a team of 1 (err, me).  Needs to grow.

Keep an ear open (possibly for 10 years at this rate)  :10_wink: .

Maybe I would even get a tab in these forums one day.... one can dream  :1_grinning: .

 

[RimBlock]

No emails so looks like I will not be going to Sweden (as expected really :12_slight_smile:  ).

Time to concentrate on the above until 1.4 hits  :1_grinning: .

 

[DeadSockPuppet]

No emails so looks like I will not be going to Sweden (as expected really :12_slight_smile:  ).

Time to concentrate on the above until 1.4 hits  :1_grinning: .

Whatever you make and whenever it comes out, make sure it's on the console I have so I can buy it.  None of this "PC master race" exclusive crap for your game ???

 

[RimBlock]

I will certainly keep it in mind although I believe only development houses with a proven record generally get access to the SDKs for XBox and PS so the PC version may need to come out first to build cred.  Not my fault  :1_grinning: .

Just playing with World Machine to create a terrain.  Maybe I will put something in off-topic on this.