Testing Incentives Program

Yeah i understand that QA acces was part of a pledge reward. But it should be open to everyone now , if you want the more bug to be ''catch'' and make the final product better.

It kinda make me feel strange when i see that yes there is rewards for both , but cosmetic rare furniture is 10 time more valuable in term of in game gold ( or real $) then a title or a cloak , and is only for those who get dev+.

I understand that dev+ was a pledge and deserve good reward , but it was never tell that they will get acces to exclusive reward ( content ) , outside of what was include in their pledge.

 

don't you need special pledge to get on qa server?

 

Prior to final wipe I would have agreed with you, but now that we have each developed our skills somewhat, we may all be uniquely placed to discover a bug that affects our own style directly. This may or may not help getting a diverse look at more features in a shorter timeframe?
It could also be they don't want to risk any potential to be able to reverse engineer a developer qa feature into a live client?

 

I'm not naturally given to biblical quotes, but here's one I think might be appropriate:

I've devoted a significant amount of my free time to report bugs to make the game better over the last few years, and I've spent a significant amount of money (though far less than most of the Dev+ people) to support the continued development of the game, but I'm not motivated to pay money in order to report bugs.

In fact now that all my past bug reports are clearly less valuable than any new bug reports that will be eligible for rewards I feel a little demotivated all around.

 

I'd like to suggest that perhaps a reward for achievement of some substantial milestone in the main Episode 1 storyline could be granting access to the QA server for non Dev+ players, even if only for the Episode 1 development cycle? This could potentially add a new "endgame" aspiration for some of the more casual players, and a pathway for those unable to invest so much, yet still proving their dedication to the development?

 

Even if people wanted to upgrade their pledges to get Dev+ they cant anymore. They would have to buy a new bundle just to get a chance to get one of the exclusive and rare rewards, which I have not read anywhere was, or would be part of the pledge with Dev+. Who is going to pay $550 to get a Dev+ just to get a chance for those rewards while playing on the QA? Could it be added to the addon store? maybe... but for what price? Because a big value of the pledges was the order people got to place their houses during land rush, and not just those added features that came with the different levels of the pledges. This is a bad idea for the masses and a great idea for the elite, and will push the gap between those that have and have not further apart.

 

After the postmortem I was motivated to check out the QA server. They need help? Sure, I can poke my nose around for a couple hours; there are plenty of times that I want to play but really don't know what I want to do, and trying to break things seems like a fun alternative.

Then I realized I would have to pay at least $450 to do that and... yeah. I balked at upgrading from Ancestor to the Dev+ level while pledges were open. I'd love to help (I have a great time helping out at a local gaming convention), but that's a fairly steep buy in just to help.

 

Great ideas! We've included the announcement in the weekly update, and will be making regular promotions on the main website and on social on a regular basis.

We will be working to include regular objectives and testing needs to focus your efforts, and of course reporting back findings that result from each event. This is only a secondary element to your overall needs to just jump in and discover issues as they come up.

 

That's rocks! Good initiative.

 

I have a room set aside in my house for bug squashing swag.

 

As founders dev blog already came open for all,
and last wipe has gone, i suppose theres nothing to hide in forums anymore and dev+ should be open for all

 

Meh...what's the worst that could happen? I choose to be optimistic and I do hope the QA side of things gets the testers they need, because - #1 the free form QA testing to this point only results in free form bug reports so less than robust and less than ideal quantity of feedback and #2 I sure as hell am only testing things that interest me and then maybe heading back to playing in the real game (eg. live servers).

V/R Brickbat, Proprietor of The Brickport Family of Towns and Box Edge Tight Rope Walker Extraordinaire

 

I have to voice my opinion that dev+ should remain as it is now. It is incorporated into the new bundles at about the same cost as the original entry point. IMO, it works as a carrot to encourage people to pledge at a higher value if they want to be involved with testing at an earlier state.

 

Agree that Dev+ should remain as-is in terms of access, I think its fine for people to fund the game's development this way.

I am also in the camp of people who just use the "New Posts" feature and dont look through the forums very much. I perhaps click directly into the current release subforum and thats about it. So I also very rarely happen upon the QA server build threads. I think an email distro, or PM group, or some way of subscribing to some form of announcement would be helpful. How does one find out about it in a direct way, currently? Just watch the Dev+ forum itself? Thanks for the tips on using the newsfeeds and follow features, but Im not well adapted for that.

Also agree a player-reported-bug database of any sort would be helpful (I am totally willing to make an open source application backend for this if anyone wants to jump in on that w me ). Part of my inner resistance to bug reporting on here (besides the fact that I do it all day in my career lol) is the time it takes me to search through the current release bug report forum for anyone already reporting the bug I found. I think I might be afraid to be insensitive to the triage folks who probably have to remove dupes constantly (or worse the dupes sneek in and dev time gets wasted too). Sometimes it takes me like 25-30 mins and I get distracted and end up not reporting at all.

How does one get to the QA server on steam? I use steam to play sota, so should I download a separate client/launcher from someplace to play on QA?

 

Yes people can still upgrade in bundles to Dev+ as mentioned. For example this bundle has Dev + access. I didn't check them all out to see which, but if someone is interested in getting a bundle with Dev + access they exist Well it seems like people would not want to pay so much, but in some of our cases we've been here a truly long time, like myself since Nov 2013 and I did a payment plan that took me two years to complete. So it's not like most of us just plopped down the amount of our pledges, many payment plans were done I'm sure. Also the Devs are considering them again I thought I had heard but don't quote me . And truly this gap people talk about is sad of course. Most of us would be more than happy to share and have been sharing the whole time. I always gave away extra things before persistence and taxes came in. and I am just like so many living pay check to pay check . Oops sorry got off my soapbox, not directed at you in particular Some don't want to play on QA because your character improvements don't carry over to the regular server, well at least they didn't use to, but incentives will help to give the Devs what they need which is the important part of all this since we now get that they really need our help. So we all test in whatever capacity we can and help them I say for the good of the game

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/?page_id=60538

 

Does the role of "wandering bard" count towards the 4 hours? I'm interested in the TIP and the rewards that come behind it.

Sincerely yours,
The Wandering Bard

 

I'm in the same position. Early on, I had a small pledge, then upgraded to Ancestor. Between that and my various add-ons purchased since Persistence Day, I'm well over $500 pledged in total...but there is no way short of ponying up a minimum of $450 more for one of the Viking Bundles to join in on the Dev+ access.

The same amount of money someone brand new needs to come up with, but could do it today, without any prior involvement in SOTA, whereas my original pledge goes back to March 2014. We're both in the same longboat, except I'd end up with an extra house and lot I don't actually need or even want.

Many other in-development pledge-supported games gauge one's commitment by the total amount pledged, in total, not whether or not a specific package has been purchased. If nothing else, it'd be nice if non-Viking/Kobold/Elf pledges could similarly be upgraded to the point of Dev+ access.

 

Want my help - appreciate it, give me presents, be nice to me.
Paying to help? No way - never ever.

 

In other words it is only for the players that can spend lots of money.