History of the PTS

Casdha

I've seen that some folks (including myself) have begun to forget the timeline of the development of this game.
I hope it is OK to post this as the NDA is gone but I thought these might be a useful reference for folks who want to remember how this game came to be.

They are my copies of the patch notes from Beta and the Psijic Order Beta tests.

These are meant for a reference for those that don't still have (or have never had) access to them.

Enodoc

Ah, there it is, the Patch Note which destroyed early story progression:

Beta Session 0.18 Patch Notes

• Now after the tutorial completion, new characters will go directly to first alliance city where you will then have the choice to go to the starting islands.

This is good stuff! The Beta notes are most likely OK to be posted, as I specifically remember the NDA on that being lifted. Since the Psijic stuff just seems to be early releases of the Beta (essentially a Beta PTS??), there should be nothing wrong with that either.

Casdha

I like this one that everyone seems to make up myths about From PO Beta 0.16

The Elder Scrolls Online v0.16 introduces fixes and improvements to existing content based on tester feedback—particularly regarding combat ability balance and crafting. Two new zones can be explored, the Alliance War is available for the first time on the long-term playtest server, Dark Anchors have been reintroduced, the Veteran System is implemented, and many new features have been added.

The Veteran system (Cadwell's Silver and Gold) was there the very first time the whole game was available to play. Folks always assume that it was a last minute add (and it might have been) but how would they know if they couldn't finish their alliance zones first. The fact is the first time anyone outside of ZOS got to see the whole game, It was already in there.

Enodoc

Casdha wrote: »

I like this one that everyone seems to make up myths about From PO Beta 0.16

The Elder Scrolls Online v0.16 introduces fixes and improvements to existing content based on tester feedback—particularly regarding combat ability balance and crafting. Two new zones can be explored, the Alliance War is available for the first time on the long-term playtest server, Dark Anchors have been reintroduced, the Veteran System is implemented, and many new features have been added.

The Veteran system (Cadwell's Silver and Gold) was there the very first time the whole game was available to play. Folks always assume that it was a last minute add (and it might have been) but how would they know if they couldn't finish their alliance zones first. The fact is the first time anyone outside of ZOS got to see the whole game, It was already in there.

Yeah, indeed. That doesn't say that it was chucked in last-minute, it just says that this was the first time the testers could do it.