PTR Suggestions

[Powerman]

Sigh...

I'll just try to summarize my suggestion.


WHAT TO DO (FREAKZ):
- Instant Level 85
- Gold Cap
- Vendors either sell gear for free, or at lower prices (like 1,000 gold per tier 11 or 12)


WHAT TO DO (PLAYERS):
- Check spells and talents
- Test scripts for the new (and old) dungeons
- See if arenas/BGs are fully functional
- See if all quests can be completed



= GENERAL:
- Everyone will generally be able to test/report on non-working spells, items, talents

= PVE CONTENT:
- Pve guilds or Pve players will no doubt continuously check raids and dungeons

= PVP CONTENT:
- Pvp guilds or Pvp players will regularly queue BGs and arenas; or make duels to see what works and what does not

= QUESTS / NPCS:
- Try to make a post that announces the need for -all- quests and NPCs to be checked, and for the non-working ones to be reported.
Offer an in-game reward to the player who contributes the most valid reports.



This is the benefit of being Level 85 + Having Gold/Gear on a PTR.

Your 'testers' (players) can easily jump into the game and check out the things that need testing.

Even if it's supposed to be "starting from scratch":
= a level 85 can easily clear lower level dungeons, faster than a level 20.
= a level 85 can complete all the quests in one zone faster than a level 30.
= a group of geared level 85s can easily be told to check if older raids are working fine, and they wouldn't have to re-grind/ re-farm the gear needed just to test bosses there.
= a level 85 can travel from place to place faster to test everything, compared to a lower level who doesn't even have gold to train riding.


So basically - people are still TESTING FROM SCRATCH - but are at a higher LEVEL and POWER - that they can do it FASTER and more EFFICIENTLY.

Cheers and Good Day.

[pal0bre]

A character copy / premade would be just fine.

[Zohlomg]

We need you to test stuff from scrach, there's no use for us if you test the profession from 525. We need to see if it is level-able 1-525. That's just an example. There's no ENDGAME to test, there aren't 8/8 DS bosses yet.

[Powerman]

Zohlomg wrote:

We need you to test stuff from scrach, there's no use for us if you test the profession from 525. We need to see if it is level-able 1-525. That's just an example. There's no ENDGAME to test, there aren't 8/8 DS bosses yet.

Correct me if I'm wrong but (with your example - professions) - aren't ALL of them leveled normally from 1-525 - and are already WORKING - even on 4.0.6?

The only major changes I remember are additional craftable items (from Firelands and Dragon Soul).


Anyway, my point about "endgame" is relative to the available content.
Hour of Twilight / End Time / Well of Eternity = are the three heroic dungeons available (according to the announcement).

In order to do that - players have to be around 355-360 ilvl, gemmed and enchanted, and with other viable professions.

That means - aside from spending hours to level from 1-85, players will also have to RE-DO "progression steps" from 4.0.6.
- trash farms in raids
- trash farms in world mobs
- killing bosses in TOT/Stonecore, or in BWD/BOT
- Tol Barad dailies
- professions leveling

This could, theoretically, take days or weeks, depending on player activity.


Players don't need to spend hours leveling up, or days grinding.
They can immediately log on:
- put all the talent points needed, and test if the talents are all working
- check scripts/drops for the 4.3.4 dungeons, or even those in Firelands
- do various quests (that are easier and faster to finish as a geared level 85), and report whatever isn't working



I guess all I'm saying is - if you can try what other private servers, and retail WoW, does with PTR (instant 85, copied characters/items, or vendors to sell gear immediately):

- It would make the testing FASTER and MORE EFFICIENT

(yes, even from scratch, for example -quests- since a geared level 85 can finish every quest chain faster than an ungeared level 1)

[Zohlomg]

4.3.4 doesn't mean fully copied 4.0.6 scripts an we add additional ones later on.

We started with a NAKED 4.3.4 core and copied some(those which were possible) scripts from 4.0.6, but that's all. All the quests for example needed re-scripting.

So no, you are not right.

[Powerman]

Zohlomg wrote:

4.3.4 doesn't mean fully copied 4.0.6 scripts an we add additional ones later on. We started with a NAKED 4.3.4 core and copied some(those which were possible) scripts from 4.0.6, but that's all. All the quests for example needed re-scripting. So no, you are not right.

My point is that - Wouldn't it be easier, faster, and more efficient - if the 'testers' (players) are already leveled and geared - while doing those quests?

ie. "kill 100 mobs" as level 30 = takes 15 minutes, might end up dying (in some cases no spirit healer to ress)
"kill 100 mobs" as a geared level 85 = takes 3 minutes (no chance of dying, continue to next quests)

That's the most simple comparison I can think of.
I'm just thinking about efficiency.

I think we're all on the same page that all of us want the server to progress and have good fixes up, I'm just thinking about more efficient/faster ways to get to it.

[shhnedo]

If any of you had read just a little bit about the 4.3.4 core, you'd have know that after it's release it had NO DATABASE and NO SUPPORT! This is why everything needs to be redone from the ground up.

[Powerman]

shhnedo wrote:

If any of you had read just a little bit about the 4.3.4 core, you'd have know that after it's release it had NO DATABASE and NO SUPPORT! This is why everything needs to be redone from the ground up.

You do know that every player can still do low-level quests (faster/more efficient) -as a level 85, than as a level 1, right?

So technically - you're still "testing from scratch" = but your testers are "uber-ized" to make things faster for everyone.

[Needlegun]

Gear whore crying for free gear.nuff said

[Powerman]

Needlegun wrote:

Gear whore crying for free gear.nuff said

You're a troll and an idiot. (gear whoring for a PTR - for LULZ?)
You should be sad.

[lamonna08]

i agree with both of u (Powerman , Zohlomg ) , yes PTR is for test new stuff , but sadly this is not the offi server , things need to be rescripted again , and i do belive ppl must level up again so they will find buggs ( if there is ) and report them . but i hop u make server rate x1 exp and loot as well so it will mean something for those ppl who tested the PTR , i mean whts the point of fixing every quest if the rate is X10 or 20 ??

http://i698.photobucket.com/albums/vv348/LordPsynister/enh4.jpg

[Powerman]

Sigh...

I'll just try to summarize my suggestion.


WHAT TO DO (FREAKZ):
- Instant Level 85
- Gold Cap
- Vendors either sell gear for free, or at lower prices (like 1,000 gold per tier 11 or 12)


WHAT TO DO (PLAYERS):
- Check spells and talents
- Test scripts for the new (and old) dungeons
- See if arenas/BGs are fully functional
- See if all quests can be completed



= GENERAL:
- Everyone will generally be able to test/report on non-working spells, items, talents

= PVE CONTENT:
- Pve guilds or Pve players will no doubt continuously check raids and dungeons

= PVP CONTENT:
- Pvp guilds or Pvp players will regularly queue BGs and arenas; or make duels to see what works and what does not

= QUESTS / NPCS:
- Try to make a post that announces the need for -all- quests and NPCs to be checked, and for the non-working ones to be reported.
Offer an in-game reward to the player who contributes the most valid reports.



This is the benefit of being Level 85 + Having Gold/Gear on a PTR.

Your 'testers' (players) can easily jump into the game and check out the things that need testing.

Even if it's supposed to be "starting from scratch":
= a level 85 can easily clear lower level dungeons, faster than a level 20.
= a level 85 can complete all the quests in one zone faster than a level 30.
= a level 85 can travel from place to place faster to test everything, compared to a lower level who doesn't even have gold to train riding.


So basically - people are still TESTING FROM SCRATCH - but are at a higher LEVEL and POWER - that they can do it FASTER and more EFFICIENTLY.

Cheers and Good Day.

[Nedhitis]

I think the Freakz's staff is not thinking the whole scenario very well.

What is the point of having a good intention by making players start from the beginning... if most people is not even willing to do so...? I saw today that, at most, you had around 300 online characters on PTR. It is obvious everyone that is the most interested in playing there already signed up and made their accounts, meaning that you will not get much more than that and, what is more, it may be less with each passing day due to people losing interest on it. And 300 players testing (from which only a handful will actually make bug reports) for a server that has over 3.000 people online daily... hm, that will not suffice. At all. Specially for Raid/BG testing: there will be missing people even at peak times. As you said, there are no 4.3.4 raids, but, since everything was scripted all over, you still need to test raids overall, and 300 online people at most will take too long to check all raids even if they get no ID.

This is one of those very few exceptions where quantity > quality. Do as the OP suggested and you will have more than double the amount of testers very soon. After all, they can always choose to purposedly make level 1 characters on the PTR for pure testing purposes if they really need to test everything, so the option still exists. Forcing people to test things in an order which may not represent their interests and/or knowledge will, at best, yield one bug report every 3 days after the first week, being from some minor quests or class spells that can anyway be checked at any level. In any case, most of the already done bug reports could have perfectly be checked at level 85, which shows that most people is busy getting to 85 BEFORE checking any bug, unlessit is gamebreaking. Therefore... the intention dies where it starts, if you ask me.

So, yes, I would consider it twice if I was Shocker. There is a reason why mostly every server and retail do it this way. Players are non-paid testers in these cases, so there is just so much they are willing to go through for this. For everything else, hire a paid tester and ask him/her to check everything from scratch. It sounds harsh, but it is true...

[Powerman]

TL;DR version:

= Make it instant 85
= Make all characters at gold cap (riding training, professions leveling, skill training, re-spec, and below)
= Make the tier vendors sell items at a cheap gold cost


The (geared) Instant Level 85s can TEST EVERY CONTENT - from the start point, to endgame (heroic 4.3.4 dungeons) - FASTER and MORE EFFICIENT - than leveling from scratch.

I can guarantee you that.

[Zohlomg]

We will not make instant 85, we are testing actual LIVE server scenarios, if people can level up, etc.

If you're not willing to spend 3-4 hours leveling, you aren't willing to test spells for 3-4 hours either.

Those 300 are everything that we need if they have enough patience.