Why no test server?

Since the balance team obviously needs more time to make FB, mirage, and scourge more OP, why don't they have a test server? You know players would actually be able to test things (for free) and give feedback before disastrous patches like the last two can see the light of day. I can't see any reason other than Anet not wanting input from players, pretty much every other MMO has a test server. In fact I can't think of one other than GW2 off the top of my head.

@Rufo.3716 said:Since the balance team obviously needs more time to make FB, mirage, and scourge more OP, why don't they have a test server? You know players would actually be able to test things (for free) and give feedback before disastrous patches like the last two can see the light of day. I can't see any reason other than Anet not wanting input from players, pretty much every other MMO has a test server. In fact I can't think of one other than GW2 off the top of my head.

That's a good suggestion. And give us test numbers on these specializations. Better yet counter plays on these flavour of the month classes or a video of these pvp players in ANET testing their own class and possibly some tips on why things are.

I have said this before in other games...ANY game that has a decent focus on PvP requires that those testing the classes are at least capable of reaching the upper middle rankings of skill within the game. Sadly, most devs barely rate middle of the pack on actually playing their own games.

Also, each class needs their niche in which they are the undisputed masters of. Something that if you want to do X people will point rather unanimously at a singly class. Right now...there is far too much homoginization going on to the point a class hardly feels distinct at all.

Scourge more op?? People like you shouldn't be allowed in a test server.

I would pay to see devs try to fight against scourge XD

@Razor.6392 said:I would pay to see devs try to fight against scourge XD

Lmao. Perfect punishment for making scourge.

Players on the whole are terrible at feedback and wouldn’t look at the balance as a whole but instead what favors their preferred class. It may also involve trial and error meaning coordinating this with players on a test server would likely increase time.

They could almost the same interaction with players, without any of the hindrances, by releasing them beforehand or give a high level synopsis of what they’re planning.

It would be great if they would invite high tier pvp/wvw guilds to test the overall class balance like they were doing it for raids

@Rufo.3716 said:You know players would actually be able to test things (for free) and give feedback before disastrous patches like the last two can see the light of day. I can't see any reason other than Anet not wanting input from players, pretty much every other MMO has a test server. In fact I can't think of one other than GW2 off the top of my head.

What's the point having a test server when they don't test anything?

@Svarty.8019 said:

@Rufo.3716 said:You know players would actually be able to test things (for free) and give feedback before disastrous patches like the last two can see the light of day. I can't see any reason other than Anet not wanting input from players, pretty much every other MMO has a test server. In fact I can't think of one other than GW2 off the top of my head.

We do what they don't want to do - we test stuff!

But considering that they do test stuff, this renders having a test server unnecessary.

@Rufo.3716 said:Since the balance team obviously needs more time to make FB, mirage, and scourge more OP, why don't they have a test server? You know players would actually be able to test things (for free) and give feedback before disastrous patches like the last two can see the light of day. I can't see any reason other than Anet not wanting input from players, pretty much every other MMO has a test server. In fact I can't think of one other than GW2 off the top of my head.

You don't think they can make those professions more OP without a test server? I do.

Kidding aside, test servers are archaic wastes of resources. Test servers were not really grounds for giving feedback, but more for finding bugs and fixing broken mechanics. There are much better ways for Anet to get your opinion about game stuff than having the added expense of a test server, IF they wanted our opinion on such things in the first place.

There are test servers - they are commonly called live servers. If you didn't figure it out yet, they literary test out stuff on us. Alone the fact that they released patch with bugged backstab (which was really obvious the moment you used backstab at least once) speaks volumes.

@Razor.6392 said:I would pay to see devs try to fight against scourge XD

Lol. Then they would realize. How weak scourge is.

Sadly, there are enough players with their own agendas to make test servers pointless. If you have any doubt about that, read any thread in the PvP section. The agendas are glaring. Still, I believe the class forums are good start . . . if serious suggestions are made seriously.

Again, sadly, most players have given up on that for reasons I'll not get into. That said, I am curious as to how these balances are achieved. How they come about isn't exactly made public.

Some insight would be nice.

@Nimon.7840 said:

@Razor.6392 said:I would pay to see devs try to fight against scourge XD

Could you please look at the date of the messages ?Don’t know about now since I don’t pvp in MMO because it’s simply crap and there are better games out there for that, but compared to other classes and all that I’ve seen and read, condi Scourge was disgustingly OP with very low skillcap. Press a few buttons, done. Now your opponents have more time to react properly I guess.

So in the end, as long as your class faceroll everyone you’re good right? Classic. Start to look around you instead of being narrow-minded.

The problem with Anet is that they can let something awful for months and even years before starting to mend it with small patches solutions ( and sometimes never). I’m amazed with how the balance team most of the time cannot get things right with few changes here and there every 3 months. Meanwhile smaller dev teams (different game but still) can make a lot of changes, fix the wrong things, fix REAL bugs (nerf to Phase Traversal meanwhile they don’t touch similar skills) and a lot of the work is not only number/percentage tweaks.

All that with a way smaller team. I just don’t get it, well except for the fact that these devs are surely more passionate about their game. It’s really sad because if GW2 had proper and more regular balance patches and hotfix, it would go a long way. Right now despite a few babysteps, it’s still the same stale thing and condimeta since hot. Boring as hell. Forcing players to get a specific build in order to do endgame content is lame, especially if there’s no build diversity. Kills the will to play.

And I’ve played their games since GW1 betas.

@"Ayrilana.1396" said:But considering that they do test stuff, this renders having a test server unnecessary.

Thats really debatable with all the dreadful balance changes, bugs and issues that they always add. They likely "test" it with a 5minute run around an empty map - say they didnt 1 shot anyone and call it a day.

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@"Ayrilana.1396" said:But considering that they do test stuff, this renders having a test server unnecessary.

Just because you don’t like a change, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t tested. Anet has their own goals on how they want classes to specifically perform.

@"Ayrilana.1396" said:Just because you don’t like a change, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t tested. Anet has their own goals on how they want classes to specifically perform.

Their goals dont explain all the bugs and issues that make it into a few too many of their "balance" updates. there are MANY that would have been seen and fixed before release if only they spent 1 minute actually testing the update. One clear example is the wonderous fall trait bug that Mesmer had which would instantly kill zergs, was hilarious granted. Was even funnier that it managed to get into the game.

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@"Ayrilana.1396" said:Just because you don’t like a change, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t tested. Anet has their own goals on how they want classes to specifically perform.

It’s a complicated system and not everything that tests well on their internal servers will do the same on the live servers. Developers also cannot realistically test everything each time they make a change to see if it broke something.

Honestly i feel like if they did this they should leave damage numbers to be false low numbers because people who only want to give feedback based on max sustainable dps wont lead to anything good in the long run.

The should allow test servers for testing new traits and game mechanics as well as overall profession flavor. Leave all the raid dps numbers and shit out of it.

I asked for this suggestion some months ago. I would be in favor of a PTS. More feedback could help them out and would provide better balance.Maybe they can tweak it this way that all classes wont differ in optimized dps (like a range of 1-2k) so raid groups can be differentiated and professions truly only would be swapped out because if certain utilities because of fight mechanics and not dmg. And they could make WvW test maps and PvP test matches to determine competitive balance and counterplay.

players give the bst feedback.

I think they just don't do it to save money. And that's why we always will have embarrassing bugs.

@Ayrilana.1396 said:

@ArmageddonAsh.6430 said:

@Ayrilana.1396 said:But considering that they do test stuff, this renders having a test server unnecessary.

Just because you think they test enough does not mean they do. I work for a much larger corporation with a lot more at stake than this company and even this place doesn't always test the way they should. They act like they do but then a system will go live and tank hard for 2 weeks while they sort out what they could have if they had done larger pilots of the changes.

I would not let players test my game. I would pay professionals to test it with specific sets of criteria and simulate at the very least and as close as possible my production environment. Maybe they do but they are also not very transparent about anything really.