Suggestion Test Team

[MariusAbyssal]

I would like to propose the creation of a test team, whose goals are to test changes coming to test before they go live and to support the balance team with statistics.

Even though this test team will not have new features to test all the time they can also be used to obtain statistics (eg. how many souls does a miner make / hour) this way they can work closely and provide information to the balance team when there are no new releases.

Advantages:
- Less bugs that reach live.
- Takes stress away from the developers (Knowing there's a safety net. Ofc developers shouldn't rely solely on the test team and not check their code).
- Helps with balancing.

Disadvantages:
- Delay in new content. (By lets say a few days if it doesn't contain bugs)

I believe a test team is an integral part of a software development cycle and will bring a lot to herocraft.

Example: Before the new map release players were asked to go on test and see if medals dropped from pvp.
What should of been testing turned into a random pvp fest, with noone really looking for who they killed if they were in a clan or not what class they were etc. , with a random player going once in a while "Hey I got a medal". With a team of 6 people this could have been properly tested in 20 min, covering all the possibilities and assuring people that everything was working fine.

 

[Oudaiesty]

Test team sounds awesome, I'd like to see this happen.

 

[0xNaomi]

This is really something Balance should be doing.

 

[Kainzo]

This is really something Balance should be doing.

Gotta admit - this is something balance should be doing but its not clearly defined yet.

 

[Oudaiesty]

Gotta admit - this is something balance should be doing but its not clearly defined yet.

Testing is something everyone can do, the problem is that if you're focused on balance AND testing, then you have divided focus and Increased chance things will slip through the cracks. It would be good to let a group of people be dedicated entirely to testing. Can potentially prevent a lot of complaining and put fresh eyes on new and current features.

(We're kinda writing a book with no editorial staff at the moment if I were to compare)

 

[MariusAbyssal]

Gotta admit - this is something balance should be doing but its not clearly defined yet.

I think the responsibilities should be split that way you have more focus and thus better quality and efficiency.

 

[0xNaomi]

I think the responsibilities should be split that way you have more focus and thus better quality and efficiency.

The thing is, balance has to test things to make sure numbers are correct, and to see the effects of numbers.
While they are testing that, they'd find issues.

 

[Oudaiesty]

The thing is, balance has to test things to make sure numbers are correct, and to see the effects of numbers.
While they are testing that, they'd find issues.

Balance test for numbers, Test would test for UX.

 

[Ruger392]

I really like this idea, I went on the test server a few times to help out some devs,and had fun! If this becomes a thing really hope i can be in the team!

 

[CoolBeans279]

This is a great idea.

Like kainzo said balance CAN test things, but some things would take to long and wouldn't be efficient to do them self.

EDIT: Like Marius said, test could do stuff like how much money does a miner make/hour, sure balance could do this but it wouldn't just take an hour, it'd take multiple hours and multiple mining trips to actually figure it out, and you'd need to ask other miners about it etc. Its just not efficient for balance to be testing things like this.