[UO Herald] The Testing Process

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We’ve learned that some of our players are a bit confused on how the testing process works for Ultima Online. We wanted to clear any misconceptions and let you know how it all works:



More...

 

[Tina Small]

JoAnn, it would be interesting to hear more about the internal testing process used before you put things on a "public" test server. Can you give us a general description of who comes up with test cases or situations, who carries out the testing, who analyzes the results, how often you usually update your internal test server as you work towards pushing out a new publish, any funny stories of internal testing gone wildly wrong....?

 

[Ender]

Linking to a website that's down ftw, huh?

 

[Joanne_Mythic]

JoAnn, it would be interesting to hear more about the internal testing process used before you put things on a "public" test server. Can you give us a general description of who comes up with test cases or situations, who carries out the testing, who analyzes the results, how often you usually update your internal test server as you work towards pushing out a new publish, any funny stories of internal testing gone wildly wrong....?

That's a great idea, I'll see what I can do. No promises but I'll try!

Internal testing gone wildly wrong...*Giggles*

 

[Joanne_Mythic]

Linking to a website that's down ftw, huh?

Are you unable to connect to the uoherald?

 

[kelmo]

I see the Herald just fine.

 

[ColterDC]

No confusion here.....

1. Develop next overpowered weapon/pet/skill.

2. Slap on test shard.

3. Ignore feedback on how it will be abused.

4. Release to live shard.

5. Congrats all around for another job half done.

 

[Fink]

At the risk of cluttering up this forum further, these links could do with being stickied or FAQ'd.

Most people confuse UHall for being a direct line to the developers. Although a lot of questions do get answered here by other players, AND the devs sometimes post/often read here, UHall probably isn't the most efficient way of having your concerns heard or answered by "UO" itself.

 

[Ender]

I can't connect to any UO.com webpage.

 

[Oriana]

*points to sig*

 

[Maplestone]

I like the idea of a "brainstorming" shard seperate from the "queued for publish test" shard.

 

[Kratos Aurion]

No confusion here.....

1. Develop next overpowered weapon/pet/skill.

2. Slap on test shard.

3. Ignore feedback on how it will be abused.

4. Release to live shard.

5. Congrats all around for another job half done.

Time to move on..?

 

[canary]

At the risk of cluttering up this forum further, these links could do with being stickied or FAQ'd.

Most people confuse UHall for being a direct line to the developers. Although a lot of questions do get answered here by other players, AND the devs sometimes post/often read here, UHall probably isn't the most efficient way of having your concerns heard or answered by "UO" itself.

You know that it doesn't help that the GMs pretty much send everyone here as a way for the devs to possibly answer their questions.

 

[Viper09]

No confusion here.....

1. Develop next overpowered weapon/pet/skill.

2. Slap on test shard.

3. Ignore feedback on how it will be abused.

4. Release to live shard.

5. Congrats all around for another job half done.

Sounds like someone is still upset about spilling their milk...

 

[Viper09]

You know that it doesn't help that the GMs pretty much send everyone here as a way for the devs to possibly answer their questions.

Odd, they always send me to the UO website for all questions

 

[Tina Small]

That's a great idea, I'll see what I can do. No promises but I'll try!

Internal testing gone wildly wrong...*Giggles*

Glad I got you to giggle, Joanne. My condolences on your loss and I am very glad you're back with us now.

Now see if you can extract some good QA stories out of that crew!!

 

[Tina Small]

Joanne, I'm kind of curious about the timing for your article. Are we perhaps going to see Test Center updated with new things to test this week?

Also, I have a question about this paragraph of your article:

In the future, for systems or game balances that we would like input on, we'll try to place it on a different shard from our normal pre-Production so there is less confusion.

Does this mean that for testing system or game balances changes, you are going to mirror a shard other than Origin? If yes, can you give us more details on what that mirroring involves? Do you replicate the existing houses on the shards? If yes and you "own" a house on the shard that was mirrored, does that mean you can automatically stroll into that same house on the mirrored shard? What about characters and their possessions...will they exist on the mirrored shard as well? If yes, any dire consequences to you on the original shard if you delete or modify them? (I assume the answer is no.)

I've asked before about the mirroring of Origin and it seems the answer I got was that you generally use a copy of Origin from several years ago. Have never quite gotten an answer on what that really means and don't really understand why now you might mirror any particular shard for TC if you don't mirror houses, content, characters, and possessions in bankboxes and carried by characters.

Sorry if this is silly stuff...it's just something I've always been a wee bit curious about.

Edited to add: Could this paragraph simply mean you might make available a separate Test Center that follows the Siege ruleset? Also, if you mirror a particular shard, do you mirror local landmarks unique to that shard? For example, would you be planning to tease us by showing us some of the Brit Bank changes?

 

[ColterDC]

Sounds like someone is still upset about spilling their milk...

*yawn*

Your skill in childish insults has increased by +1