Level 70 Actions and New Jobs

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01-06-2017, 03:49 AM
Phafi

Level 70 Actions and New Jobs

At some point before Stormblood releases, will players be able to beta test the new actions and jobs in order to try to not have the 3.0 PLD and AST issues? We don't need any of the new content in order to do this, but I think if we were given the i230 lore gear, as well as access to a level 60 dungeon, one or two Heavensward primals (preferably an extreme), and a training dummy, players would be able to do some decent testing as to the strengths and weaknesses of new actions and jobs and provide feedback to have a more balanced release of the expansion.
01-06-2017, 04:01 AM
Xyno

I think it is a good idea
01-06-2017, 04:01 AM
MilesSaintboroguh

Very unlikely. The devs don't do open beta.
01-06-2017, 04:02 AM
Brightshadow

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phafi

At some point before Stormblood releases, will players be able to beta test the new actions and jobs in order to try to not have the 3.0 PLD and AST issues? We don't need any of the new content in order to do this, but I think if we were given the i230 lore gear, as well as access to a level 60 dungeon, one or two primals, and a training dummy, players would be able to do some decent testing as to the strengths and weaknesses of new actions and jobs and provide feedback to have a more balanced release of the expansion.

I think a pre-order early access for only the new jobs would be a great incentive for those that pre-order the expansion. (No cancellations allowed) I would say allow us to play the new jobs 1 month before the official expansion release. SE already said the job trainers are not in stormblood areas. And while you would only be able to get the new jobs to 60 before the official expansion release you'll be able to gauge how they would work and if they need adjustments.
01-06-2017, 04:05 AM
Phafi

Quote:

Originally Posted by MilesSaintboroguh

Very unlikely. The devs don't do open beta.

There was a test server in FFXI, however all of the content was still locked behind its regular 72hour timegate restrictions. Also, I'm aware that there is a desire to prevent spoilers of new content, which is why I asked for existing content to test with.
01-06-2017, 04:10 AM
Remus

Won't happen. This dev team doesn't want players testing stuff because they want content to be a surprise. Quite a few things which has happened to classes or concepts (diadem/LoV/AST) could have been somewhat avoided if there was some form of PTS early on. Testing a MMO internally majority of the time just leads to more issues with balance. I would love a test server so players can give feedback on those jobs so they are actually viable when the full game releases and not a mess like MCH and AST. I mean they spent the whole of Heavenward balancing AST...
01-06-2017, 04:13 AM
Phafi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Remus

Won't happen. This dev team doesn't want players testing stuff because they want content to be a surprise. Quite a few things which has happened to classes or concepts (diadem/LoV/AST) could have been somewhat avoided if there was some form of PTS early on. Testing a MMO internally majority of the time just leads to more issues with balance. I would love a test server so players can give feedback on those jobs so they are actually viable when the full game releases and not a mess like MCH and AST. I mean they spent the whole of Heavenward balancing AST...

I don't consider jobs to be content, but even if the devs do, if we voice an opinion loud enough, they'll be more inclined to listen. If you recall, for an extremely long time, the team was against introducing cooldown reset on wipes, but that got added after several years of complaining.
01-06-2017, 05:13 AM
randysquirrel

1. Testing is opened.
2. Everyone complains about everything especially how they cant run around as brd any more boohoo
3. people say the new content is terrible and must be completely overhauled, for which there isn't time, or probably need
4. Dev are up sh*t creek.

Don't see it happening imo
01-06-2017, 05:35 AM
Kyuuen

No, that most likely won't happen. The issue with even testing out the new jobs and some abilities is that without being 70 we won't know how it'll scale at that level. So even our feedback would be useless.

For it to be accurate we'd have to be at or near lvl cap, with all abilities available, and a gear load-out similar/close to that of lvl cap gear.

Should it happen? I can see where and why it would be useful. But they'd have to go through significant means to keep story elements from being leaked/spoiled.
01-06-2017, 05:41 AM
AlphaFox

Along side that, we see how some doomsayers here are and would end up with complaints over stuff that is fine as is.
01-06-2017, 05:42 AM
Felis

Test server: a special Thanalan with Thanalan enemies at lv70 and lv 70 FATEs
except the job nothing get spoiled
01-06-2017, 05:49 AM
DamianFatale

Perhaps they could add this to the benchmark?
01-06-2017, 05:50 AM
ReplicaX

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phafi

There was a test server in FFXI, however all of the content was still locked behind its regular 72hour timegate restrictions. Also, I'm aware that there is a desire to prevent spoilers of new content, which is why I asked for existing content to test with.

You have to factor in that they introduced the Test Server in 08/29/2011 (9.5 years after initial release). It was implemented towards the backend of the game's life cycle. The game had already released 4 expansions and 6 add-on scenarios at this point. The battle system was far more complex with 22 jobs to balance and the team's staff was reduced to help with other projects.
01-06-2017, 05:51 AM
Phafi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kyuuen

No, that most likely won't happen. The issue with even testing out the new jobs and some abilities is that without being 70 we won't know how it'll scale at that level. So even our feedback would be useless.

For it to be accurate we'd have to be at or near lvl cap, with all abilities available, and a gear load-out similar/close to that of lvl cap gear.

Should it happen? I can see where and why it would be useful. But they'd have to go through significant means to keep story elements from being leaked/spoiled.

The only issue I can see with scaling is percent based defensive actions, such as stoneskin or 2.x series lustrate. These abilities have already been modified, and I wouldn't be surprised to see another stoneskin adjustment. Other than that though, scaling won't really be an issue, people will complain about having a low critical hit rate regardless of whether we test it or not because our stats will be low at the start of an expansion anyway.

@story elements, they've blacked out cutscenes and whatnot before during the 2.0 beta tests.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlphaFox

Along side that, we see how some doomsayers here are and would end up with complaints over stuff that is fine as is.

When you gather feedback, there will always be positive and negative feedback. It will just move up the process from after release to before release with a chance of some things being fixed prior to launch.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReplicaX

You have to factor in that they introduced the Test Server in 08/29/2011 (9.5 years after initial release). It was implemented towards the backend of the game's life cycle. The game had already released 4 expansions and 6 add-on scenarios at this point. The battle system was far more complex with 22 jobs to balance and the team's staff was reduced to help with other projects.

When it happened doesn't really matter, I'm willing to bet much of what caused it to be late in the game's life was adjustments to PlayOnline, enabling you to select from the game itself or test server, as well as the website to copy your character data over to the test server. I would like to highlight from this though, that as a company, SE has shown that they are not against using a test server.