Testing Incentives Program: Updated with more Rare Rewards!

Greetings Avatars,

Please join us in testing on the QA server (instructions are posted each release in the bug forums) so we can make each release the best it can be. By helping us test prior to the release we can insure there are less bugs, more stability, and more balance.

We will reward you for your efforts because we do understand that time spent on QA is time lost on advancing your character on live. Each release we will randomly reward the following rewards (one prize per player):

• 500 Gold Crowns (4 prizes)
• Ant Farm (4 prizes)
• Antennae (4 prizes)
• Bug Cloak (4 prizes)
• Set of Bug Paintings (4 prizes)
• Bug Sprayer with emote (1 prize)
• Insect Leg Table (1 prize)
• Corpion Chair (1 prize)

In order to qualify you must meet the following requirements:

• Install the QA version of the game
• Login and play on QA for at least 4 hours per release
• Report at least 1 bug in the QA section of the forums
  • Note that players will only be submitted for the lottery once per QA cycle. Continued bug reporting will not count toward additional submissions into the lottery.

Thanks Avatars!

 

I need that butterfly pic....

 

Rewards are neat but ... "randomly reward the following rewards" ... 23 prizes randomly rewarded spread over all people that QA. That means it is likely that I will put in effort and get no reward (besides less bugs, more stability) .

Sorry, I am busy with limited playtime. No guaranteed reward equates to no participation. There was a few forum posts where people threw out good ideas on rewards and incentives for participation on QA. Implementing any of these would increase participation.

 

@DarkStarr
You guys should consider keeping track of the experience points that players earn on QA and giving it to their same avatar on live. This would eliminate having to forego advancing ones avatar on live in order to test on QA. You could also incentivize it by offering say double experience on QA.

With that said, I hope that someday I finally get that corpion chair.

[edit] Just to be clear, I'm not talking about the daily giveaway experience. Only the experience that is earned through normal play.

 

I will be there to help because it was asked for.

 

That’s what it used to be

It used to be number of unique bugs you submitted. I got most of the way in fact thing only thing I didn’t get was the coroutine chair. I think you needed around 500 or something bugs for that.

I liked it. It was fair. Everyone who did meet the criteria got. However it was manually calculated which was a drain in the team.

 

Works for me.

Then we can test out syncing issues as we take over the QA server ;-)

 

I managed to get everything but the corpion chair. I even got the Royal Pest Controller title.

 

@DarkStarr, Since its only 1 prize per player, would you consider randomly distributing starting from the most desirable (the corpion chair) to the least? Then everyone would have a "fair" shot at the best stuff. Also, some guy keeps bragging about his Royal Pest Controller title . Is there a way to earn it anymore? Cheers!

 

What are you supposed to do on QA?

You still go about your normal routine mining etc or just test the things in the release notes?

 

Do both, do one, or the other. There may be code changes that impact parts of the game that they didn’t expect. And sometimes you find bugs that are around from before. Or you can just test the new things I the list Darkstarr is providing. Or you can run through the list and test the bug changes in the list. Do what you want to do.

 

QA is perfect for testing new things.
I love to shop a the crowns merchants to see how the products look like.
You can waste material on crafting to see if it is worth doing it on your own or better go to buy it.
You will see the prices and locations of new products and know already if it is worth spending your hard earned gold.
and sometimes you are even able to prevent changes you dislike.
There is no need to focus on testing specific parts of the game, just try out whatever you want, you will falll over bugs.

 

My fave thing to do is try out new skills too go to zones I dont want to go to on live.

 

It is a hassle tho. I use steam and I have to download the entire game over again, which is time consuming, each time I switch back and forth.

Couple that with my experience over the years of bugs not being fixed for multiple months, sometimes bugs that are never fixed, and the entire experience of "testing",

telling y'all about stuff and then watching it go broken into the release (and sometimes the next several) anyway, despite my efforts, makes me say.... Nah, not worth the time.

 

You can use the stand-alone QA installer alongside the Steam installation of live.

 

Regardless, I know from experience all this stuff will just end up on vendors sooner or later anyhow If I *really* want something I can just buy it, especially with cotos going for 8000 IGGs....

 

Could we get a clockwork beetle pet for an added one?

 

@DarkStarr Coto count needs to be updated, to reflect the changes.

 

The COTO count was updated the last time I was on, for the daily QA rewards? It was like 2000 coto's, or something like that.

 

Might be, but this post needs update. 5 cotos is nothing now. Should be 500.