IRL - For those of you who play on Test what do you like and dislike about it? For the rest of you what are your thoughts on Test? (1 Viewer)

[Princebytor2112]

What do you folks think are the pros and cons of Test? I know it gets a lot of hate for lack of a better word around here but I have been on Test for 12 years now. I remember the old days of the devs and coders working with us to test content with specific goals in mind. I've done stuff with Sklug back in the day and Hludwolf had us test the 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th anniversary content and we tested the advanced loot system for 2-3 months.

More recently we've tested the 21st through 25th anniversary stuff, we get the expansion a week early but you do have to pay for it just like Live players and we've tested DX11, the new UI engine and FTE.

There are certain players that do report bugs as thoroughly as we can but it does tend to get ignored or not acted on more often than not. They do have a small team that can only do so much but at the same time it would be nice to see more direct interaction with devs again and for more things to be caught and fixed before going to Live.

\What do you guys think? I'm sure I missed some things but I tried to cover as much as I could remember. I have noticed Test seems to be the brunt of most criticism here as well as the EQ forums. It's far from perfect but it is what it is.

 

[montywand]

Pros free gold status, no economy everyone sells stuff for 1pp usually. Cons yeah we can report bugs but some still get pushed to live and live players blame test for not being reported. I like the community the server feels like one big guild. I’ve been on test for many years and have no plans to return to live server.

 

[RobRenfro]

I think everyone should play on FV

 

[Doc James]

Test is best if you want to experience the whole game without paying real money for subs. Con will be, experiencing all the bugs first hand as a filter, and also potential roll backs and wipes of character data. But from my understanding the server wipe hasn't happened in quite some time.

 

[MrInfernal]

I agree with everything that Montywand and Doc James said I like the xp bonus, but its the friendly, helpful nature of the players that I truly enjoy.

 

[Littch]

If you want to play on Test you better have PATIENCE
Especially if your going to use MQ and play on test.
Trust me your going to have a lot a lot of down time without MQ
That’s fine if you have people to group with and have the patience to wait and play your box set.
But if you’re the inpatient type Test is not going to work for you.
Patch, 2 days later another patch in same week is just part of life on Test!
So take that into account, now before you /testcopy.
You have been warned…..

 

[Princebytor2112]

Test is best if you want to experience the whole game without paying real money for subs. Con will be, experiencing all the bugs first hand as a filter, and also potential roll backs and wipes of character data. But from my understanding the server wipe hasn't happened in quite some time.

There haven't been any character wipes since 2000. A few individuals have had their characters bug out but it was mostly just user error combined with bad luck. We've had some game breaking bugs and long downtimes over the years but overall the server has been pretty stable the last several years.

 

[fleqfan]

A downside is you will never be able to buy krono there or get any real value from rare drops. The plus side is you can /testcopy as much plat as you need from live to test for spells and what not.

Oh and test just went down as I was posting this...

You can /testbuff to level 25

To me test is fun doing old content with CWTN and KA on newly created accounts and not worrying about losing them.

 

[Koko]

pro: free gold status, less prying eyes on you in zones due to lower population, exp bonus, people give away everything basically for 1 pp

Cons: lower population, seems like lots of patches

I personally like it as my play times are currently unpredictable and can’t commit to much on live.

 

[519helvis]

A downside is you will never be able to buy krono there or get any real value from rare drops. The plus side is you can /testcopy as much plat as you need from live to test for spells and what not.

Oh and test just went down as I was posting this...

You can /testbuff to level 25

To me test is fun doing old content with CWTN and KA on newly created accounts and not worrying about losing them.

for me not having to worry about krono is awesome ... ive always hated the bazaar and trading so not having to deal with that is one of the biggest perks for me playing on test, i was part of the player wipe in 2000 it was during kunark and nag/vox loot was dropping off trash in solb and perma ... it was hilarious ... than the next day they wiped. a few days later they restored characters naked. ive pretty much been on test since the beginning and have dabbled on tlp and live ... and if youve read any of my posts in the past youll know i think its the best server .... sure you need to have patience to play on test but hey as they say

patience is a virtue

 

[smokedog66]

I just moved to test this year. I want to box multiple teams so not having to pay a sub to have them be gold is very valuable. If you want to raid you will probably have a hard time and very very limited choices but if you mostly play solo its a no brainer. You can gear all your toons with chase loot very easily. MQ is pretty hard to play without once you are used to it and test server may not get patched for days and you have to have the patience to wait for the awesome people to get the work done.

 

[Koko]

Playing on test has made me realize how bad I am at boxing my zerker,rogue,shm without automation… wtb spoon fed burn hotkeys for the zerk and rogue :x

 

[519helvis]

Playing on test has made me realize how bad I am at boxing my zerker,rogue,shm without automation… wtb spoon fed burn hotkeys for the zerk and rogue :x

try the plugins theyre free on test ... my rogue can burn 4-5mil dps with the rog plug ... (shameless cwtn plug)

 

[dysmal]

Playing on test has made me realize how bad I am at boxing my zerker,rogue,shm without automation… wtb spoon fed burn hotkeys for the zerk and rogue :x

All CWTN plug ins are free on test .. still waiting for that awsome bard and wizzy sets to come out otherwise im on test for free gold and to pretend to be a social pariah

 

[Szazor]

The only real Plus for Test is the GOLD status.
I could never afford to play multiple raid forces without Test.

Everything else that has been mentioned about Economy and population and patches can be really annoying.

 

[Kingkiller71]

The one thing that no-one mentions and it's a killer for me is that even with a /testcopy, your Overseer is reset back to the start.

The exp bonus, as good as it is, is only on killed mob, not quests or overseer. So I can get more exp killing mobs, but I lose out on the 5-7% a day using Overseer. At the moment, this is a big issue for me as I'm barely online and am using Overseer to get my various characters to 125, something that would take 3-4 times longer on test as the initial Overseer quests only give about 0.5% at first...and it takes a LONG time to level everything to max.

That said, I honestly feel that when (if) I get my mains to 125 and my ftps to 115, then I may take the plunge and head over.

 

[Atheos32]

All CWTN plug ins are free on test .. still waiting for that awsome bard and wizzy sets to come out otherwise im on test for free gold and to pretend to be a social pariah

MQ2AFNuke is the bomb dot com for Wizy

 

[secret_wombat]

The one thing that no-one mentions and it's a killer for me is that even with a /testcopy, your Overseer is reset back to the start.

I don't think /testcopy resets overseer but until you start doing overseer tasks you start off with zero progress. Once you start progressing overseer any further /testcopy will not affect overseer, so it's initially a PITA but once you catch up it is all good.

 

[fleqfan]

The one thing that no-one mentions and it's a killer for me is that even with a /testcopy, your Overseer is reset back to the start.

The exp bonus, as good as it is, is only on killed mob, not quests or overseer. So I can get more exp killing mobs, but I lose out on the 5-7% a day using Overseer. At the moment, this is a big issue for me as I'm barely online and am using Overseer to get my various characters to 125, something that would take 3-4 times longer on test as the initial Overseer quests only give about 0.5% at first...and it takes a LONG time to level everything to max.

That said, I honestly feel that when (if) I get my mains to 125 and my ftps to 115, then I may take the plunge and head over.

If you are really wanting to make the move to test you could, beforehand, convert all your common agents to uncommon and then retire all of your other agents for the echos and /testcopy a number of times building them up and storing them in the shared bank.

Once on test just use that ~ amount to replenish all of your agents and overseer exp.

 

[RobRenfro]

What do you folks think are the pros and cons of Test? I know it gets a lot of hate for lack of a better word around here but I have been on Test for 12 years now. I remember the old days of the devs and coders working with us to test content with specific goals in mind. I've done stuff with Sklug back in the day and Hludwolf had us test the 14th, 15th, 16th, 18th and 19th anniversary content and we tested the advanced loot system for 2-3 months.

More recently we've tested the 21st through 25th anniversary stuff, we get the expansion a week early but you do have to pay for it just like Live players and we've tested DX11, the new UI engine and FTE.

There are certain players that do report bugs as thoroughly as we can but it does tend to get ignored or not acted on more often than not. They do have a small team that can only do so much but at the same time it would be nice to see more direct interaction with devs again and for more things to be caught and fixed before going to Live.

\What do you guys think? I'm sure I missed some things but I tried to cover as much as I could remember. I have noticed Test seems to be the brunt of most criticism here as well as the EQ forums. It's far from perfect but it is what it is.

So you do have to pay for Xpacs on Test or you Don't? And are things no drop?

 

[MrInfernal]

Test follows the "normal" server rules about No Drop and expansion packs. I believe you get access to all but the latest two expansions without paying, but please correct me if I'm wrong

 

[RobRenfro]

After FV I'm not sure I could ever go back to "Normal" Rulesets. In less than a year it's become the norm for me, kind of like boxing has.

 

[ncellular]

Nice to buy a group XP pot on Live and have it forever as a /testcopy

 

[jdicman]

i have only been on the test server for a short time but I can tell you why i started playing on it. most them have been covered all ready. the able to copy from live is really nice I sold a few krono for plat. then got some nice bags and a full set of defiant gear in all types ( plate chain and leather and cloth) from lvl 25 up. seens you can do /testbuffme to lvl to 25. so when making a new char. I make them on the live server and give them the bags full of gear and plat. and then do /testcopy . the all you have to do is log in to the testy server and you have a lvl1 with bags and plat ready to lvl.

its all so nice having the bazar with cheap food and drinks and nice high lvl gear.
the population on the server is about the lvl I like. enough people you done feel like your playing a solo game but low enough I can go out and play in peace with out running to to lots of people.

I have not play enough to run in to all the patching that people have talk about so can see how bad or not it is.

 

[Princebytor2112]

The one thing that no-one mentions and it's a killer for me is that even with a /testcopy, your Overseer is reset back to the start.

The exp bonus, as good as it is, is only on killed mob, not quests or overseer. So I can get more exp killing mobs, but I lose out on the 5-7% a day using Overseer. At the moment, this is a big issue for me as I'm barely online and am using Overseer to get my various characters to 125, something that would take 3-4 times longer on test as the initial Overseer quests only give about 0.5% at first...and it takes a LONG time to level everything to max.

That said, I honestly feel that when (if) I get my mains to 125 and my ftps to 115, then I may take the plunge and head over.

Overseer is server based and then account based so /testcopy has no bearing on it. You would need to do Overseer on Test for it to work on Test. It doesn't carry over from Live just like it wouldn't carry over from one server to another on Live or TLP.

 

[ItsSteeeve]

even with a /testcopy, your Overseer is reset back to the start.

Overseer is tracked per account per server, which includes Test.

So yes, you have to re-level overseer on test if you've never done it before (the same way you will if you transfer a character in a non-server merge situation), but if you were already leveling it on test, deleting and remaking characters, or overwriting them, will not affect your overseer status in any way.



As to why play on test? Having gold on every account you want to play.

Positive and Negative: Test is suuuuuper quiet at off times. Like, logging in a group at 11pm pacific and being 6 of the 15 players not afk in bazaar/lobby quiet. Seeing a total of 1 other group of people during the entirety of ToL + NoS + LS progression quiet. MQ falls into the "I dont want to play without it" category because playing without it is oftentimes just running 3-4 characters and some mercs because the only other awake person on the server is also using it in their own xp farm.

Downside: If you want to be self-sufficient on your account in terms of krono generation, you arent doing it on test (but why arent you on a TLP if you want that, its ezpz).

 

[Marnan]

I've always enjoyed Test. If you put some time into it, you can usually find people to group with at least intermittently. I think everyone should try it out at some point to see if it's right for them. Having said this, I still spend the bulk of my time on Bristlebane, my home server.