Is the NA/EU/NA character copy a 2-3-2 thing now?

Iselin · May 2022

Haven't actually been on the PTS for a long while but I thought the character copy flipped every 2 weeks so I expected it would be back to NA today but it's still EU. So is the pattern different like 2-weeks, 3-weeks, 2-weeks now?

TPishek · May 2022

No they haven’t swapped back to NA characters in over a year.

Kusto · May 2022

Last couple of years its been first 2 weeks NA and the rest 4 weeks EU.

Kelinmiriel · May 2022

Not the rest 4 weeks. It has stayed EU until the next patch, so the next THREE MONTHS.

At four patches per year, this means that the NA copy is up on the PTS for a total of 8 weeks every year; the EU is on it for the other 44.

This has been particularly irritating to me this patch, because I maintain an especially complex guild island on the NA. I really wanted to prepare it for High Isle ahead of time, but I couldn't, because the new set stations were broken for the only two weeks that I had access to my island.

If we had easy access to all the attunable stations, tuned to all the sets, and all of the properties that are locked away, I could manage to work around the limitations anyway.

How hard would it be to provide a box on the template character that grants access to all the limited time properties? There's already one with "deeds" to all of the ones that are normally available through the crown store.

How hard would it be to provide a box with all the attuned crafting stations for a guild house owner, like myself, who wants to be able to get things set up for the next patch, but can't because my guild island is on the other server?

Also - I know a lot of people who no longer even test things at all on the PTS, because they play on the NA, and they feel it's not worth bothering with - re-creating everything from scratch every time. They're too frustrated with this current system. I can't blame them.

2020:
NA: Jan. 20
EU: Feb. 3
NA: April 19
EU: May 3
NA: July 13
EU: July 27
NA: Sept. 20
EU: Oct. 4

2021:
NA: Jan. 25
EU: Feb. 8
NA: April 19
EU: May 3
NA: July 12
EU: July 26
NA: Sept. 20
EU: Oct. 4

2022:
NA: Jan. 31
EU: Feb. 14
NA: April 18
EU: May 2

Iselin · May 2022

It's much worse than I imagined.

WhiteCoatSyndrome · May 2022

Yeah it used to be the other way around where NA had it between test cycles. The ideal solution wouldn’t favor either server, maybe if it just switched automatically every few weeks regardless if there was a patch to test or not? But that would probably be more effort than ZOS would want to put into the PTS, given that it’s just intended for testing.

tomofhyrule · May 2022

I'd like it if they traded off who got the long time, tbh.

I know it's a testing server, but a lot of people do use it for other things as well - I love to go on to get screenshots of quests for stories when there's really nobody else around to get in the way, or to see a quest before I play it on live. IIRC, the reason they swapped to EU having the long period was because the EU housing community wanted to practice builds without spending their real in-game money... but that means now the NA server can't also do it as well.

The NA server only having the first two weeks also means they can't really test content with their character swell either. The last few Trials have kept hard modes deactivated until week 3, so no NA players can test those with their characters. Also the biggest sweeping balance changes tend to come in the week 3 patch, so NA gets the most broken versions of the new sets. Yes, NA gets it first, but then EU gets the versions closer to live.

I feel like it'd be more fair if they did a 2-2-2 cycle and left the last server active until the next patch, and then just swapped which server comes first. I can see EU's argument that they'd like to get the long haul for doing things like housing, but now they've had it for years and NA's getting the short end of the stick in the exact same way.

WIZZARD2K · May 2022

Bummer, I had several things on my to test list because they weren't ready to go in the first two weeks but I guess we'll have to do it live

Kelinmiriel · May 2022

WIZZARD2K wrote: »

Bummer, I had several things on my to test list because they weren't ready to go in the first two weeks but I guess we'll have to do it live

Like preparing my complex NA Guild Island for live - which I was ready to do, this time, but the new sets couldn't be attuned, and that wasn't fixed until the NA copy was gone.

Yes, if we had access to all the houses, a box of all the attuned crafting stations, whichever achievements we need, and all the wayshrines, I guess that would help a lot.

Or maybe just alternate which server is first, then re-copy that one for the "final patch"? Seems a lot more fair, and might get more people testing - and doing better testing.

I spent much of last week checking all the achievement vendors for antiquities, for example - I posted about 39 that are missing. But there are two I can't check, because my EU characters can't see the vendor in Tideholm.

James-Wayne · May 2022

@ZOS_GinaBruno any chance you could please talk to the people who control this flip and move it back to PC NA for a few weeks from Live?

Jayne_Doe · May 2022

James-Wayne wrote: »

@ZOS_GinaBruno any chance you could please talk to the people who control this flip and move it back to PC NA for a few weeks from Live?

I'd love to see them alternate things so NA can have more time on the test server. I don't see why the EU housing community would dictate them having the bulk of time on the PTS server. Afterall, there's an NA housing community as well.

I like the idea of alternating which server gets the first two weeks. However, just merely switching it next time to EU first, then NA would mean that EU would always get the bulk of time on the PTS for the Chapters and story DLCs.

Kelinmiriel · June 2022

I would love to see it alternate, or rotate, or something, because it occurs to me - not only is it unfair to NA to have so much less time, but perhaps the EU people would like to see things first, for a change, sometimes?

If it was my choice, this is how I would do it.

One year (4 patches) of:
2 weeks NA
2 weeks EU
Final patch NA

Alternated with the reverse, one year (4 patches) of:
2 weeks EU
2 weeks NA
Final patch EU

Alternating every patch, like some people have suggested, sounds fair on the surface - except that the pattern is:
Q1: Dungeon
Q2: Chapter
Q3: Dungeon
Q4: Story/Zone DLC

Bringing in a fresh copy for the end might give people a chance to test things before it goes live. I always re-test the things I've reported, when I can - the things I tested the first two weeks, I often don't have a chance to re-test, because I don't have much content completed on the EU.

The PTS is empty after the first four weeks. All the EU people have done everything they wanted to do, and the NA-only people that have been gone since the EU copy, have no reason to come back. Why not give them a chance?