Test Realms-Arent they for those who want to help?

[Alexandryte]

One thing I cannot, for the life of me, understand is the current stance on test realms and what features you have active on there. Namely class/race specific options as most people will be more annoyed when their character is nerfed/buffed inappropiately. Granted any account type options are on the table but these basic 2 are what really annoy me. Chances of getting multiple successful pugs to attempt content is hit or miss (depending wildly on who copies over and when they are on). People looking for flaws in class changes, that we all can help with....if we have access.

I'm not asking for anything we already do not own/have access to. What I am asking for is some fairness in how they treat those who want to give their time to be a statistic in balancing and bug finding.


And yes, I'm not gonna lie, I am quite bitter about their stance on the test realms. "You can help us beta test and get bugs out on the items that are changing but only if you pay us monthly for the privilege" What? I buy things to own and am spending my time not loaned time (aka Sub time) to try and help and someone turns their nose up? Really? Never gonna opt for helping on Llama again unless this stance changes.


Honest question though: Do you really market VIP as having the perk of being able to help effectively on the test realms? If you do, wow, people pay to help test things they gain no compensation for (in addition to eating up time they might be using on live servers)? If not, why the staunch policy when I asked a GM/Dev (unsure which)? We neither gain items, nor currency, nor TP that carries over to live.


What is there to gain from artificially shrinking your sample size?


What I ask is not for access to all that we have not earned or paid for; I ask for us to merely be granted the features we have paid money for at the very least if we are giving our time.

[Oreg]

/disagree. I think the current limitations are fair and provide Turbine with sufficient testers to not warrant a change. More is not always better.

[Angelus_dead]

One thing I cannot, for the life of me, understand is the current stance on test realms and what features you have active on there. Namely class/race specific options as most people will be more annoyed when their character is nerfed/buffed inappropiately.

They should allow Lamannia accounts to share features such as classes, races, and adventure packs unlocked on the main account. But because Lamannia may get gifts of Turbine Points for testing purposes, it shouldn't be possible to buy features that get shared in the other direction.

I suspect that it is technical limitations that has prevented Turbine from doing this so far. They don't appear quite confident that their e-store is completely under control.

[Alexandryte]

/disagree. I think the current limitations are fair and provide Turbine with sufficient testers to not warrant a change. More is not always better.

More data points always leads to more accurate data as the value of an individual data point is rendered less important as the whole is more fully analyzed. More eyes never hurts when the goal IS to find the problems.

They should allow Lamannia accounts to share features such as classes, races, and adventure packs unlocked on the main account. But because Lamannia may get gifts of Turbine Points for testing purposes, it shouldn't be possible to buy features that get shared in the other direction.

I suspect that it is technical limitations that has prevented Turbine from doing this so far. They don't appear quite confident that their e-store is completely under control.

I agree. One thing I am concerned with is the idea that a feature of theirs isnt under their control fully. One thing I would suggest as a solution is the equivalent of a character copy service but specifically for account options that can only be used once every X months to limit the strain on the database. If the difference between VIP and premium (which is essentially downgraded to F2P on Llama) can appear Im sure they can find a way. A much more crude way to handle it would to flag all testers as VIP for testing purposes.




Or, of course, they could continue to ignore the issue and have any issues that may have been picked during testing, release patches and deal with any fallout they get from players. Its one thing to do everything in your power to solve a problem and overlook something. Its another to cut your nose to spite your face in testing.

With people slowly switching to the Premium model over VIP with little being offered as a larger perk for going for a sub, they bleed testers slowly.

[Cyanide_Death]

And yes, I'm not gonna lie, I am quite bitter about their stance on the test realms. "You can help us beta test and get bugs out on the items that are changing but only if you pay us monthly for the privilege" What? I buy things to own and am spending my time not loaned time (aka Sub time) to try and help and someone turns their nose up? Really? Never gonna opt for helping on Llama again unless this stance changes.


Honest question though: Do you really market VIP as having the perk of being able to help effectively on the test realms? If you do, wow, people pay to help test things they gain no compensation for (in addition to eating up time they might be using on live servers)? If not, why the staunch policy when I asked a GM/Dev (unsure which)? We neither gain items, nor currency, nor TP that carries over to live.


What is there to gain from artificially shrinking your sample size?


What I ask is not for access to all that we have not earned or paid for; I ask for us to merely be granted the features we have paid money for at the very least if we are giving our time.

As far as I know, anyone can test on Lamannia, They just need to download the whole client and save in a separate folder from the main game.

I know this is correct since I am not VIP and I can log into Lamannia.

I do believe they need to allow more updates on your character. I copied my paladin at lvl 17, and by the time I was able to play on lamannia I had already hit level 19. now I am lvl 20 and would love to re-copy and test the new epic content.

[Catholicon]

I was hoping the test server would at least let me have a trial run of adventure packs and classes before deciding if I want to spend my own real-world money on buying them. If I buy an adventure pack only to find out that I don't like it after all, I'll be very annoyed as the money I spent on buying TP could have gone into purchasing an adventure pack I'd actually enjoy playing.

The same can be said for classes and races. I would have liked the option of "testing" a Drow on the test servers before I spent howevermany TP it was on buying it for real.

[Neptuno]

I was hoping the test server would at least let me have a trial run of adventure packs and classes before deciding if I want to spend my own real-world money on buying them. If I buy an adventure pack only to find out that I don't like it after all, I'll be very annoyed as the money I spent on buying TP could have gone into purchasing an adventure pack I'd actually enjoy playing.

The same can be said for classes and races. I would have liked the option of "testing" a Drow on the test servers before I spent howevermany TP it was on buying it for real.

I think that if such an option would be available id spend a few bucks on the main servers because i also want to try
out diffrent adventure packs and classes, and i'll bring this up even tho someone will say "THIS IS NOT WOW", plz shut your mouth .

On WoW's test server you get to copy Max leveled characters and try most of the new content which also can help a player set up their mind on what they finally want to level up and play, if this would be added to the DDO test server i think more people would purchase TP to buy adventure packs and maybe unlock a race or class that they would like to play