PTS Cycle

heaven13 · August 2022

I know typically the cycle is NA for a few weeks, then EU. Once the new patch goes lives, does PTS stay EU until the next new testing?

kringled_1 · August 2022

In terms of the character copy, I believe that's correct.

tomofhyrule · August 2022

Yes. PTS won't get a new copy until they're testing U36, which I'd guess to be sometime around the end of September.

I heard they used to have a switch to NA in the last two PTS weeks, but then the EU housing community complained that only two weeks of PTS didn't give them much time to test out housing builds. Of course, this means that NA now only has two weeks a cycle, so it seems they didn't fix the problem as much as pass it off to someone else. Doubly so since NA only is on PTS for the first two weeks of any patch, and most of the major changes come in week 3.

I think it would be a lot more fair if they did go back and forth, maybe swapping servers at week 3 or swapping back to the first at week 5. Also change which server starts so that EU can get the first taste some times and then NA can get the more polished week 3 and the long haul sometimes.

heaven13 · August 2022

Thank you both for the reply. I thought that was right but I do seem to remember it being the other way, as I could log in on NA in off-cycle to create characters and still have access to my cosmetics. Makes sense that they switched for it for a time, in the sense of fairness, but yeah, now it's just flopped the other way. Would be great if they used your suggestion to flip who starts PTS each quarter.

Kelinmiriel · August 2022

Actually, every quarter would mean either NA or EU getting all the dungeon DLCs, and the other server getting all the chapter/story ones. Which would still be better than the current system, but not ideal.

Having EU first for two in a row, then NA first for the next two, would work.

Or alternating years, even, would be fine.

The current system isn't really fair for anyone, though - NA copies are only available for 8 weeks every year. Those of us who play primarily on NA never get to see the final patches, and have very little time with our real characters, houses, and collectibles - many of which aren't available on the PTS. (Making all of those "limited time" things possible to get on the PTS would certainly help.)

And the EU people never get that first look, either, with their own characters. So not a great system for anyone.