Open Betatesting 1.4

[Epsilon-]

Can i ask if there is any Betatesting at all for the next patch. Is it open? If not, why not? And if it is, where can i sign in. You will get the best results if you let the masses of the people report all the bugs for you in this forums.
I was looking forward for this game for over a year, read the dev diarys every wednesday. Now its been almost half a year since release and its still unplayable.

Betatest the patch and let the people tell when its ready.

 

[wolf1455]

The information given is a n open beta in februari. And if it is like last time you only have to register your game to be able to participate. So another week.

 

[Kaiser Bill]

They said somewhere they were paying for professional betatesting in the future, but that might just be for new titles.

 

[unmerged(72352)]

They said somewhere they were paying for professional betatesting in the future, but that might just be for new titles.

Exactly.
There will a be an open beta testing period before the official release.
Look in the fist sticky thread on this page, you will see the 1.4 announcement.

 

[Epsilon-]

Professional betatesting? Nothing beats a public testing imo. Open a bugthread, users will post their problems, devs will read it and fix it. Simple and it works and everybody is happy. Im looking forward to the day when it is completely fixed.

 

[Otacon]

I like the idea of professional closed-beta testing before any patches are released in the future, as we (the consumers) have paid for a product that we expect to work. It's not that i wouldn't participate in the beta, but i would have been happier when this would be not necessary

 

[jju_57]

Why one or the other? Can't they have both?

 

[Capzero]

Normally the QA department is your "professional" paid beta testers. They usually have a long list of tests sofware has to pass to go live. Obviously they will put much less man hours and test fewer "weird" scenarios than the general public. I like to see both used. The problem is if the bugs raised by the public can't be solved before the patch is releaed (due to budget or resource constraints) then you end up with lots of user complaints.

 

[Bhaal]

are professional testers going to know what to look for as fas as bugs in this game, there are a lot of things going on, subtle things that they might not notice or think is not that big of a deal or something that is working as designed. I am all for not having fanboys test the game or patches, but is a pro tester who has never played a PI game going to catch all the subtle nuance's in the game? just my 2 cents.

 

[Capzero]

Well the QA team is usually PI staff so know the game pretty well. If they used an external QA team then I would worry. I don't know PI's organization well enough but most game companies can't afford to outsource as it is more expensive than hiring your own team.

 

[Bhaal]

ahhh, if they are in house testers then i will not worry. Thanks for the info.

 

[wolf1455]

Well the QA team is usually PI staff so know the game pretty well. If they used an external QA team then I would worry. I don't know PI's organization well enough but most game companies can't afford to outsource as it is more expensive than hiring your own team.

Why worry, it always better to let someone that havent maked the game to test it. A game maker always know how to play the game but a virgin cant see the obvius (for the creator) way of playing it.

 

[TheDarkside]

I think the best is a mix of paid beta testers and loyal fans, that way you get the professionalism of the paid guys along with the passion of loyal fans.

 

[Von Altair]

They said somewhere they were paying for professional betatesting in the future, but that might just be for new titles.

Thats a good joke. PI have NOT been using such thing and will not use it in future. Only thing they want is your money. Working software then comes few months afterwards, bugreported by paying customers and fixed about 6 month after first bug release. Thats Paradox Interactive working method.

 

[unmerged(152826)]

In my experiance with Company of Heroes, paying for Beta Testing didn't work. The testers don't care about the game and don't use all the units ect. The best results came when Relic made the open beta test, much more people played with different specs ect ect.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

Thats a good joke. PI have NOT been using such thing and will not use it in future. Only thing they want is your money. Working software then comes few months afterwards, bugreported by paying customers and fixed about 6 month after first bug release. Thats Paradox Interactive working method.

I hope you have read the forum-rules about trolling and flaming ?

There are several things we are doing. We always try to listen to what this community wants for games.

Eu3 and Rome was bugfree and polished out of the box, but people were complaining they were shallow and not deep enough, so we kind of went over the top with HoI3, in making it "more more more" of everything.

For Victoria 2, we have done several things to avoid another Hoi3-style release.

#1) Better scheduling, with much longer time to just tweak the game.
#2) Not reinvent everything, but refining concepts instead.
#3) Not relying on volunteer betatesters, but using proper QA studios instead.

 

[numdydar]

QA for patch

I really hope that Paradox is using the QA studios for the 1.4 patch BEFORE a public beta test. The main issues for using a public beta is that many participatents report the same issues and do not keep up with the new releases like what happened with the 1.3 patch. So unless the community is willing to give DETAILED feedback with examples (like save game files and screen shots), like what the person did that posted about the CV's in fleets thread, it is more of a 'feel good' event as opposed to actually solving problems.

 

[ArmChairAttila]

Professional betatesting? Nothing beats a public testing imo. Open a bugthread, users will post their problems, devs will read it and fix it. Simple and it works and everybody is happy. Im looking forward to the day when it is completely fixed.

Lol you have to be kidding right? Pro's know what they are doing, the public as a whole knows one thing: how to bitch and moan. They certainly are not good software developers. HAHA, wow, the public and all its wisdom.

I know several QA developers here in Irvine who work for blizzard. They are paid well and know exactly what to look for and most importantly relay that information CORRECTLY back to the developers. Blizzard has always had a large, professional QA department, I.E. blizzard games ship ready never in BETA V 0.4. The public, haha!

 

[Kaiser Bill]

I withdrew from beta testing becuase I was overcome with guilt.

The point of beta testing is to test the limit of the software not to get the game/patch early and then moan when it doesnt work. This was exactly what I was doing. I never felt the reports I returned warranted te term 'beta testing'. I also invariably stopped when I hit a bug in a progresison route - ratehr than continuing to test other elements of the software - which is what I was supposed to be doing.
Don't know how other people feel when they look into their souls, but beta test forums I have taken part in could hardly be viewed as a concise review of game flaws.
Professionals FTW.

postscript: I think the Dev here clarified professional beta testing was for vicky 2. Which is great, I loved vicky but lost it years ago when I loaned it to someone and forgot who!

 

[unmerged(152596)]

Public betatesting is inefficient and ineffective. It should never, ever, be used.

Public betatesting invites haphazard and undisciplined review. Important flaws go missed while the devs waste time reading redundant posts about the most obvious issues. Then throw in a smattering of enhancement requests that don't belong.

Disciplined testing - in house or outsourced - is the only way to go. Do it right, or you'll do it again.