What does the Public Test Server do?

sPark101

What does the public test server do exactly?

Jaclynn

It allows players to test new content and relay issues to support team.

neferpitou73

Jaclynn wrote: »

It allows players to test new content and relay issues to support team.

And yet they rarely listen to that feedback.

Tbh it mostly seems to be a way for streamers to hype new content

Mr_Stach

It's kind of like yelling into a void, sometimes the void yells back and Nerfs DK. Other times they don't listen and remove Magden from PvP

Freelancer_ESO

It provides testing data from a variety of situations. It doesn't cover everything though as the population is far more limited than live servers which means that problems that crop up under heavy load for example may never show on the PTS that simply doesn't have that many players.

doesurmindglow

Basically nothing, apparently. In theory it's supposed to identify balancing and technical issues with new content releases so that they can be addressed before content goes live.

In actuality, most of the player feedback regarding either during the PTS cycle tends to be ignored so we have releases with both gamebreaking bugs and overpowered item sets that usually must be substantially adjusted one patch later, so much so that most players at this point basically accept that "meta defining new sets" are basically the selling point of new chapters and DLCs.

Not bashing, this is literally just an objective observation of the last 4 or 5 PTS cycles -- the current server downtime and patch notes themselves document both of these facts over time.

MasterSpatula

To give ZOS data for last minute fine-tuning and to present us an illusion that we have a voice.

ZOS_Kevin

@sPark101 The Public Test Server is a way for players to preview upcoming content and provide information on bugs/issue they come across. The team pours through the multitude of comments and address the bug reports to refine the experience for launch. We also take feedback given during this time for future consideration. That doesn't mean everything is done, but feedback helps to inform future direction.

However, any game dev will tell you that doesn't mean the game will come out bug free or without issue. But PTS definitely helps cut down on the bugs you experience as a player. Hope this helps!

Mr_Stach

doesurmindglow wrote: »

Basically nothing, apparently. In theory it's supposed to identify balancing and technical issues with new content releases so that they can be addressed before content goes live.

In actuality, most of the player feedback regarding either during the PTS cycle tends to be ignored so we have releases with both gamebreaking bugs and overpowered item sets that usually must be substantially adjusted one patch later, so much so that most players at this point basically accept that "meta defining new sets" are basically the selling point of new chapters and DLCs.

Not bashing, this is literally just an objective observation of the last 4 or 5 PTS cycles -- the current server downtime and patch notes themselves document both of these facts over time.

I'm actually surprised the reworked Oakensoul. Usually things just go straight to live.

DakhathKilrathi

doesurmindglow wrote: »

Basically nothing, apparently. In theory it's supposed to identify balancing and technical issues with new content releases so that they can be addressed before content goes live.

In actuality, most of the player feedback regarding either during the PTS cycle tends to be ignored so we have releases with both gamebreaking bugs and overpowered item sets that usually must be substantially adjusted one patch later, so much so that most players at this point basically accept that "meta defining new sets" are basically the selling point of new chapters and DLCs.

Not bashing, this is literally just an objective observation of the last 4 or 5 PTS cycles -- the current server downtime and patch notes themselves document both of these facts over time.

Assuming the problem is the database like they've said - and there's no reason at all to lie about it - there's a good chance that they could not have tested for the issue that they ran into on the PTS. Population on the PTS is smaller to a significant degree. I don't know enough to speculate on what the problem is, but I do know that you can't replicate a lot of things with a much smaller sample size. You'll never catch everything.

And that's even assuming that it's a problem that had a chance of occurring to begin with, and with the database for the PTS being significantly smaller, that's not a guarantee either.

Someone (several someones, likely) had to work late to get this up and running and that's in addition to the probable crunch that comes ahead of an expansion launch. Cut 'em some slack here.

SkorosMindkiller

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

However, any game dev will tell you that doesn't mean the gameanything will come out bug free or without issue.

No software testing will will find every bug. Fortunately, most software isn't life-or-death. The Therac-25 incident being a notable exception.

The fact that the EU server is OK implies that the problem isn't with the new expansion code, but something else.

Jaclynn

neferpitou73 wrote: »

Jaclynn wrote: »

It allows players to test new content and relay issues to support team.

And yet they rarely listen to that feedback.

Tbh it mostly seems to be a way for streamers to hype new content

I can only speak from my experience, but submitting tickets, and posting in appropriate forums has resulted in many bugs being fixed.
I can't even imagine how many reports they get per day. I don't stream, and I don't work for ZOS. I've been playing since launch, and tbh, annoying as extended maintenance is, especially with new content debut, I'll be back at it as soon as I can log in.

Holycannoli

DakhathKilrathi wrote: »

Assuming the problem is the database like they've said - and there's no reason at all to lie about it - there's a good chance that they could not have tested for the issue that they ran into on the PTS. Population on the PTS is smaller to a significant degree. I don't know enough to speculate on what the problem is, but I do know that you can't replicate a lot of things with a much smaller sample size. You'll never catch everything.

And that's even assuming that it's a problem that had a chance of occurring to begin with, and with the database for the PTS being significantly smaller, that's not a guarantee either.

Someone (several someones, likely) had to work late to get this up and running and that's in addition to the probable crunch that comes ahead of an expansion launch. Cut 'em some slack here.

It's probably not an issue that would be found with testing. It didn't affect the PC EU server.

This is some kind of hardware issue I'm guessing, or it should have affected both servers.

I could be wrong.

Amottica

Jaclynn wrote: »

It allows players to test new content and relay issues to support team.

This. The main purpose is for us to find bugs for Zenimax to fix. While they do not get all fixed before the update goes live, they do get some fixed.

DakhathKilrathi wrote: »

doesurmindglow wrote: »

Basically nothing, apparently. In theory it's supposed to identify balancing and technical issues with new content releases so that they can be addressed before content goes live.

In actuality, most of the player feedback regarding either during the PTS cycle tends to be ignored so we have releases with both gamebreaking bugs and overpowered item sets that usually must be substantially adjusted one patch later, so much so that most players at this point basically accept that "meta defining new sets" are basically the selling point of new chapters and DLCs.

Not bashing, this is literally just an objective observation of the last 4 or 5 PTS cycles -- the current server downtime and patch notes themselves document both of these facts over time.

Assuming the problem is the database like they've said - and there's no reason at all to lie about it - there's a good chance that they could not have tested for the issue that they ran into on the PTS. Population on the PTS is smaller to a significant degree. I don't know enough to speculate on what the problem is, but I do know that you can't replicate a lot of things with a much smaller sample size. You'll never catch everything.

And that's even assuming that it's a problem that had a chance of occurring to begin with, and with the database for the PTS being significantly smaller, that's not a guarantee either.

Someone (several someones, likely) had to work late to get this up and running and that's in addition to the probable crunch that comes ahead of an expansion launch. Cut 'em some slack here.

Concerning this, and today's issue, moving the update to live is always a concern.

doesurmindglow

DakhathKilrathi wrote: »

Someone (several someones, likely) had to work late to get this up and running and that's in addition to the probable crunch that comes ahead of an expansion launch. Cut 'em some slack here.

I mean this was definitely my mentality 6-7 buggy releases ago. It's a complicated thing to be sure, and not everything will be caught on PTS despite player feedback.

But at this point it's getting very old. Buggy releases and extended downtimes are now the rule, not the exception.

Eiregirl

If the information we have been given is accurate I have to assume that the current issues keeping the game offline is not due to testing on the PTS but a database issue.

If used properly and if used by enough people the public test server can solve many of the problems encountered before the game is launched on live servers.

Glitches can be found addressed (hopefully). Feedback on content is helpful for the developers in knowing what people like or don’t like and if that feedback is early enough could warrant changes to be made that make it more appealing to players.
Balance changes is one thing developers try to pay a lot of attention to on public test servers and it is also one of the hardest for any game to keep control of and that is mainly due to how few people actually utilize the PTS and play it as though it were the live server.

Some games I have played would host events to encourage players to participate for a day or two on their test servers in hopes to get enough people running around to find bugs or other unforeseen problems.

In the case of ZOS they do all they can on the PTS to solve as many problems as they can before launch but without people actually utilizing the PTS in the way that actually helps find the problems many more issues will find their way onto the live servers.

merpins

The pts is there so we can test stuff out before release, and give our feedback to ZoS that they don't take into consideration.

jaws343

doesurmindglow wrote: »

DakhathKilrathi wrote: »

Someone (several someones, likely) had to work late to get this up and running and that's in addition to the probable crunch that comes ahead of an expansion launch. Cut 'em some slack here.

I mean this was definitely my mentality 6-7 buggy releases ago. It's a complicated thing to be sure, and not everything will be caught on PTS despite player feedback.

But at this point it's getting very old. Buggy releases and extended downtimes are now the rule, not the exception.

As someone who has extensively done software bug testing, there is just no way that you can account for all possible scenarios where a bug can arise before an update goes live. There will always be something that was unexpected. Especially in a game like this, where the server load alone between pts and live is drastically different and all it takes is 20 more players doing some specific action to cause an unforseen issue.

SeaGtGruff

In addition to allowing us to see and play new content before it's released so we can get a better idea of whether or not we want to buy it, and to test that content and give feedback about it, the PTS gives us a server where we can experiment with our existing characters or create new characters to fiddle around with different builds without it having any effect on the live servers. We can create new characters that are at max level, and buy anything from the Crown Store at a cost of just 1 Crown, so we can very easily respec existing characters for free, or create new characters without having to grind their levels up high enough to tell whether their builds are to our liking or not.

Mr_Stach

My own reservations aside with the issue of the PTS and general Feedback problems. Testing is very important. One day of Live Data exceeds months of internal testing. There's no way that any Company could bug test a product 100% , there will always be new bugs arising that are hard to simulate and reproduce so they can be fixed. But with public testing, that's several thousand hours that you can review.

And yes I think the Feedback loop does need to be improved immensely, but the PTS is primarily for Bug Testing, not to complain about bad balance changes, which is a secondary feature of the PTS.

DtOG

Mr_Stach wrote: »

It's kind of like yelling into a void, sometimes the void yells back and Nerfs DK. Other times they don't listen and remove Magden from PvP

Probably the funniest comment I’ve seen lol

ccfeeling

Free testers

Sidonius

Looking at a lot of the threads regarding the new chapter and mechanics posted here today... not much.