Test Center?

[The Cynic]

Will a test center be made available to players looking to test housing, crafting, general game mechanics, etc.?

[Jay]

Test centers eliminate a bit of pvp on the original servers... Whenever theres a test center you end up with a lot of people who wont fight on the legit server, instead they run around on the main server talking shit and saying "duel me on test" *sigh* I hope if there is a test center here this isn't the case...

[Jack Straw]

Yea I'd hope against there isn't a test center. Maybe during the open beta it'd be nice if there was one though

[Jay]

That would be fine... Just come open day no more test :)

[Jack Straw]

Agreed

High five.

[Jay]

Freeze frame high five!

[The Cynic]

That would be fine... Just come open day no more test :)
I disagree with this. Test center shouldn't be implemented until the server fully launches (if that isn't what 'open beta' means ;p). Launching a test center now would just lower the overall population. Players would just 'test it out' rather than take the time and get a feel of what the shard really has to offer.

[Jay]

If that's the case then I'd just rather there never be a test center. If you are afraid of test center lowering the population during beta what do you think will happen when the server launches? There is always lazy people who would rather just play on test center because they can set their skills and build instant housesm, come on to the main server, pester people with characters on 60 max skill and then demand duels on test. Still dropping the population, and when it really matters.

[Jack Straw]

I disagree with this. Test center shouldn't be implemented until the server fully launches (if that isn't what 'open beta' means ;p). Launching a test center now would just lower the overall population. Players would just 'test it out' rather than take the time and get a feel of what the shard really has to offer.

I fail to see how launching a test center at the same time as the grand launch would be any different..

If you're worried about people just "testing it out" can't they "just test it out" when the server launches?

[Aarlock]

The only way I see a test center not having negative impacts is creating a very low cap for the number of people allowed on the server. I think it might make sense to give people an server to hop on really quick to test something out, but leaving the possibility of people playing it over IPY itself open would be a mistake.

[The Cynic]

I fail to see how launching a test center at the same time as the grand launch would be any different..

If you're worried about people just "testing it out" can't they "just test it out" when the server launches?
Yes they can, but some players may just log on test, set their skills, notice they don't like the PvP, crafting, or whatnot and go elsewhere. By making them use the live server, player interaction increases which in turn raises population.

I am neither for or against a test center, I'm just trying to put it into perspective.

[Jack Straw]

I still don't see what will hold them back from doing that exact same thing on the day that the server launches :confused:

How does splitting the population between a real server and a test server "raise population" or promote people staying when they find out that they "don't like the PvP, crafting, or whatnot" when they log into the test server. I don't mean to be confrontational, but I'm not understanding the difference.

Also won't people who don't like the crafting/PvP/whatnot leave anyway regardless? Eventually they're going to have to find out. A fake population boom just because of initial interest isn't an incredible accomplishment. We want people staying. I'm going to totally ignore the population for the first few months. Divinity 2.0 went from 1,500 ish to 700 in a month or two. Then it slowly died completely.

[abm]

I don't see any real positives behind a test centre. At all. All possible beneficiary aspects are countered by more negative impacts. Word of mouth will be key to the longevity of IPY2.

[redHusarz]

Please NO test server. I use to play on a pretty popular server a long time ago and then a new server called Cecils arena went up where people basically went to duel and practice pvp. It basically killed the pvp and population on the regular server because they would just log into the arena server to get their pvp fix.

[Caban the Grey]

Private test center is the way to go, just invite people you know and have a GM set skills/stats/etc...

[Tilly]

I very much doubt that there will be a public test server.. play the real thing!