I don't understand why these changes should be made in live mode.

Parasaurolophus

Does all the work of the combat team really start a week before the release of the patch on the PTS? Does ZoS not have its own testers? Why does everything have to be tested by players? Or is their test staff unable to see issues without community feedback? Does anyone know how this development might work? Why do they need such strict deadlines? It really looks like ZoS first announces the patch, and only then starts work on the patch. I do not understand. I just do not understand...

OsUfi

Because ZoS isn't a huge playerbase. So they test their own small squad with changes and make adjustments as needed. Then they put them on PTS, get a larger feel from the players, and re-adjust everything based on feedback. As they have done. As they always do.

As for strict deadlines, well, they're harder to hit with 2-3 man studios. There's always a marlketting blunder, a broken PC, mike from accounts (and artworks, and development, sigh) needs a day off. Hard deadlines don't work with small teams. Stuff always crops up and delays things. ZoS however has a large enough team in general that deadlines can help focus a team. I know everyone grumbles about maintenance and the devs in general, but on the whole, the nearly always hit their targets.

I hope crunch doesn't happen at ZoS, but I'm certainly grateful that they can post a schedule and stick to it. Much though I love indie games, and heck, even some big studio games, ever delayed schedules make me sigh. Fallout 76, I love ya, but boy howdy am I lookin at ya!

VaranisArano

See, the thing is that ZOS has internal testers. They have people who can parse.

Problem is, this time those people are how we got these patch notes, which have been widely panned by the players who went to the PTS to test.

Part of that is inevitable: the goals of the Devs and the goals of the player base don't always align. Players don't want to be nerfed, and the Devs want to lower DPS this patch. Update 35 was never going to go over well.

Part of it goes to show why ZOS has a PTS. They have internal testers, but they don't have an internal team of trial trifecta holders on Live go and run the trial on PTS for direct comparison. They need the community for that.

And internal testing really can't catch the groundswell of players logging onto the PTS and saying "Combat is boring now" or "Jabs feels awful to use."



As far as development goes, ZOS was probably prepared to have their usual team making adjustments to the PTS as needed. Week 3 and 5 are usually the big weeks, and we've seen that this time again.

However, when the Devs have the player base saying "No, go back, try something completely different" than what the internal testing was saying was fine, I'm sure it gets considerably more hectic to identify the changes that need to happen to satisfy the Devs' goals as well as some player concerns, and then update the coming PTS patches.

Where it really hits the fan is that DLC launch deadlines are pretty well set in stone. So even if ZOS wants to do more PTS testing, I'm sure they are even more aware of that looming launch date than we are.


I guess what's most interesting to me about Update 35 is that I watched ZOS push through some pretty major nerfs in Murkmire and a big combat shift in Scalebreaker. They changed some things on the PTS but mostly held firm on the heart of what the Devs wanted to do even when it was pretty unpopular. In contrast, the Devs seem to be signaling that they are willing to shift a lot on Update 35, and have actually backed off on some of their initial ideas for combat balance like universally longer DOTs and flat damage for light/heavy attacks.

To me, that indicates that the Devs also aren't as confident in their internal testing as they usually are, and there's a lot less appetite for pushing through the initial changes in the face of serious player opposition this time. But that's just a guess on my part.

joerginger

nvm