A blight server only suggestion, please inform someone

[Seikojin]

:o The test server if it doesnt needs to have a starter pack for people and perhaps a special map that caters to speedy levelling.

In other mmos the test sever allowed players to start with many many resources, money, and the ability to edit their levels...

[Jeshimon]

That is one of the things I like about the way we are treated on blight. We get very few 'gimmies' andour characters represent every bit of the work they'd represent anywhere else.

[glibdud]

There seem to be two schools of thought on this subject. Some believe it's better to let test characters quickly/automatically level to the top to test material at the highest levels, others believe it's best to make them work their way up to test advancement. It's a tradeoff. Presumably the devs made the decision based on their testing priorities.

In my own opinion, auto-leveling and free resources might be fine for a game like UO, where most of the action is the adventuring. But for such a crafting-oriented game like Horizons, such a scheme would probablyleave a lot of material undertested.

[Aeryal]

WELL,I guess it should depend on what needs testing. For instance: you want to add some new buildings with new features and there is no one with land or resources to build them on your test server. Hmmm what ever will you do? Give land and novian resources to your testers to try out the new buildings to see if they function as intended? [|-)] NOOOO you wait and let the live shards build them and find out they don't work! Many of the issues that plague the live servers and are causing people to leave could have been tested on Blight. It's a TEST server use it as such!

[:D]ok that made me feel better:)

[bigputz]

With buildings in particular this has occured in many instances. Unfortunately due to some hardware problems we got our plots on blight a week or two after live shards which put us behind on some of the building testing. At this point though I think its fairly safe to say that we have most if not all of the building types up in at least one location including the expert building types.

[Aeryal]

With buildings in particular this has occured in many instances. Unfortunately due to some hardware problems we got our plots on blight a week or two after live shards

EXACTLY my point , the TEST shard should never be behind the live one! Youaren't supposed topublish to live servers untested updates. Why have a test shard if it isn't testing things prior to it being released to the live servers?????

[Seikojin]

:o I dont mean to sound rude or snobbish, but I test games for a living. Love games.. Im a gamer... Id be playing now while typing this if Hz liked it. heheheh


You got a starter pack and could edit skills. The craftingisnt all complex, but this starter pack allowed testing of ALL levels of skills and all items that are added or things that they changed could be tested much more esily and with a great level of thuroughness due to the abilities imbibed with being on that server.

No matter what, it is impossible to say that having a starter resource kit and the ability to adjust levels easily or a way to get easy exp would make testing poor or invalid.

Ill say it over and over until it is addressed...(not in any order)
Consentual Pvp is needed
Customizable player made quests are needed
Theives are needed
Treasure chests are needed
Moving npcs are needed
House decorations are needed (ones with interactivity)
House storage is needed (allows xfer of items between characters)
combat on the run is needed
combat in the air is needed
mounting dragons is needed
mounts are needed
crafting content completion is needed
class ability diversity is needed
dynamic spawns are needed
enemy ai improvments are needed
Pawnbrokers need limited funds

[glibdud]

The problem is that there are very few people who are truly devoted to testing all levels of skill. Probably 95% of the players, given all the skill and resources they need, would go straight to the top. Your new player base would be those who decided they want to play the high-end content without going through all the trouble of actually working for it.

[Werkseikojin]

:o The purpose for a test server is to have a large tester base and get feedback on issues new and old... I am sure many people on Blight turn in issues they find... If not, SHAME ON YOU :D

I would be on blight often if there was a way to autolevel and have a resource bag with alot of resources and fund to pour into working out to where the new content is... When I play on a test server, I play to test...

But I know alot of people play to play, and like blight because of how unpopulated it is... This just goes to prove there is more of a need for test packages... The vet players on blight are beyond the newbie levels and any ground up changes will/can be missed by them...

[furian]

When I made my Drag char and i didn't even have a char that wa lvl3+ (lol.) I made my drag on blight cus` I didn't even know what it was, I thought that it wasa server that allowed you to play as the un-dead [8-)] then to me in the past. Now he's a lvl 9 Drag and I have a char named Phinius on order (24 BTLM) & (24 KNOC) and I'm happy with all the new content, and so is my Drag char...he loves an adventure that he dosn't know what will be around the corner :)

Just a coment...

[evilkarl]

It would be wrong to enable this kind of feature now that many have slaved away on their chars on blight for so long.

I do agree nothing should ever be pushed live without testing on blight however with such a small player base on blight its almost impossible to see every addition get fixed. What if they wanted to add a new flame disciple level 80 ability..would anyone be able to test that? What about t6 racial structures?.

There needs to been an option to xfer your live shard char even if only for 24hrs so players who want to test without maintaining 2 chars can. Shifting a char would have to lock their vault and coin at current value but allow the use of inventory or some such thing otherwise some live players could probably impact the blight economy

[Seikojin]

:o
Your comment here both says why they wont, and why they should....

Why not embrace something that makes the task of testing easier... Let normal play happen on chaos, unity and order... It is a TEST shard... That should be the purpose is to test things, and it is invaluable for that ability to have tools to facilitate testing...

I dont see the problem. Theres no need to be high, mighty, and greedy by saying (well I worked X amount of time to get where I am on a test shard)... its a superflous point... TEST... heheheh

[gopher65]

It doesn't have anything to do with that Seikojin (for most people). It's just that how would autoleveling to 100 in every class help test the Tier 1 blight anchors bugs (for instance)? If everyone was lvl 100 then they wouldn't even notice little bugs in the anchors because the anchor would be dead in 10 seconds (like health bar bugs, or the anchor healing faster then it should etc). Same with any tier 1-IV mobs. No one would test them (properly).

Buildings I agree with. Structures should be easily buildable.

[Seikojin]

:o
Not necissarily... With the ability to adjust your abilities and levels people would (not everyont would max max themselves... its a TEST) do a wide variety of work to test the content or area being worked on...

Im not assuming everyone would do things proper, but I also am not assuming people would do things improper... the flexability and choice is what I say is needed.

[imported_Onnidrah]

In other mmos the test sever allowed players to start with many many resources, money, and the ability to edit their levels...

They usualy do that at beta's else go play Anarchy online at their test server or once they are in beta they do what u said test server is to test new things they added, and they say they aint responsible if anything happens to ur character

[Tellarion]

exacly what i think too...

I dont see it as a problem if they cant test everything and let the live server find out if there is a flaw. cause there is so many quests etc.etc to test/do that it would take forever to test everything on everything, then we would have to wait for ages for anything new to be added, and this game is screeming for new things.

I got a hole tons of stuff i think shuld be updated too, but first i think that the HZ staff shuld concentrate on keeping the game runing for both old and new players. And when they get the time over, they can provide us with the needed updates.

Here is fourthings that i consider needed for the game:

1) Expand Form/Tech book (Or find a solution for the expert, like being able to do beginer/journymen with out having the tech/form)

2) Expand the spell book (Or same sulotion as above)

3) Do somethign about the dragons, i know ARoP is on the way, but they are whining so mutch...

4)PvP (Player vs Player) shuld most likely bring alot of new and old players back, im one of those players that loves PvP but also a good community. I was in the influence that PvP was coming to HZ when i started to play HZ, thats almsot half a year ago for me.... still waiting for it

I would be more then happy to contribute with ideas if needed, im sure there is tons of people here that got a bunch of good ideas that could help out in the minde work of the game... cause everyone gets a bit worked out on ideas after a time..

Well just my point of view, im still a happy player and dont consider playing any other mmorpg game [;)]

[Tellarion]

It would be wrong to enable this kind of feature now that many have slaved away on their chars on blight for so long.

I do agree nothing should ever be pushed live without testing on blight however with such a small player base on blight its almost impossible to see every addition get fixed. What if they wanted to add a new flame disciple level 80 ability..would anyone be able to test that? What about t6 racial structures?.

There needs to been an option to xfer your live shard char even if only for 24hrs so players who want to test without maintaining 2 chars can. Shifting a char would have to lock their vault and coin at current value but allow the use of inventory or some such thing otherwise some live players could probably impact the blight economy

'was ment to quote this in the start of my message'

[Fourwinds]

4)PvP (Player vs Player) shuld most likely bring alot of new and old players back, im one of those players that loves PvP but also a good community. I was in the influence that PvP was coming to HZ when i started to play HZ, thats almsot half a year ago for me.... still waiting for it

It has always been stated (for as long as I can remember) that Horizons would not have PvP and that if they potentially put in PvP that it would be (almost) a separate game.

[Seikojin]

:o
Just a FYI, PvP was in the beta.

[Jaraiden]

Why not embrace something that makes the task of testing easier... Let normal play happen on chaos, unity and order... It is a TEST shard... That should be the purpose is to test things, and it is invaluable for that ability to have tools to facilitate testing...

I dont see the problem. Theres no need to be high, mighty, and greedy by saying (well I worked X amount of time to get where I am on a test shard)... its a superflous point... TEST... heheheh

He's right and it would help the game immensely.

Players that beta test MMORPGs have to start somewhere, Blight could give an opportunity for that.

I don't see anything wrong having a toon named "AdvTest" or "CraftTest" that has the abilities to increase/decrease and add/drop adventure schools along with increase/decrease crafting levels. All for the purposes of testing. It should be obvious to the other players the purpose of those toons, and if a player is abusing such abilities then the toon is deleted.

I use toon as that is what the avatar is, just a tool for testing. Really, it is not a good use of time to grind levels unless that is to guage speed of advancing.

Player gets beta testing experience. Developers have willing players to "check this, check that, and report." Win win I think.

There could be other incentives, but that is up to TulgAE.