Patch test games

[zakhennahr]

I would like to suggest that before a major patch is released, such as boarding or 3% nanites, you post in the forums that you would like people to join you to patch test. I guarantee you would get a ton of people willing to try, and could even have two games going if there are enough players. It would be first come first serve to post in the group chat, but then it would allow you to stress test these new features for balance and bugs.

Thoughts?

[Siretu]

It is possible. The problem is that it takes time and effort for me to organize and when I publish I'm usually at the end of a rather long development period which means I've spent several hours working non-stop to get the patch out.

This might lead to some bugged releases, but I am usually pretty quick at fixing them.

Stuff like the nanite transfer is something I dont think will give results after 1-2 games.

[zakhennahr]

That is a good point. It could be used to identify bugs that may slip by when just one person is testing the map, though. Basically some free QA

[DumbMarine]

The patch gets announced on skype (anyone is free to join, send a PM to Siretu asking for an invite). I think one time the cruiser command beta map was updated with the patch early for bugtesting. In general, it's all live testing, because you don't want to end up in a situation where everyone is always playing the beta map.

The patches do get discussed on skype like 10 minutes before they go out, a bit of a sanity check and a bit of a "did I forget anything?".

I think announcing it on the forums would not be fast enough. Making a post "Going to be testing the next patch in 5 minutes, be on" probably won't get many views until after the testing is over.