Time for a public test server?

[Shinkage]

I've always thought it odd that an MMO of the size and scope of FFXIV didn't use a public test server. I think that has worked fairly well so far with only a few missteps. But I realize that may be because the patches and expansion have mostly added content

Stormblood feels like the first time fundamental changes have been made to the core play experience of the battle system, and changing how roles play is one of the most challenging things an MMO developer can do.

While too early to know how differently things will be, it seems to me that for something so important it should be necessary to get feedback from the player base.

Even something as limited as logging into premade characters with access only to old 4 man dungeons and raids just to see how the new skills work. That would provide feedback for the developers.

I know this has been discussed before, and it's obviously too late for Stormblood, but maybe Yoshi-P will reconsider in two years for next expansion

[Jeycht]

Not public but some people have test it. They probably have some informations from that, to see how people have react, number, blabla.

[Felis]

Only if the test server not only don't spoil the story, but also don't spoil potential economic changes (no new recipes, no new gathering nodes and such).

Maybe a single dungeon, where you can choose a lv70 job at the start, as a test server?

[SomeRandomHuman]

They probably don't do this because PTSes are usually only locked to PC players thus locking out console and in turn, a decent chunk of their player base.

[Edewen]

They don't do it because of the shit show it causes.

Story is a big thing with this game. Ive seen fcs break apart because of people who rushed to lvl and spoil the end of HW story. People are assholes and this is their game. They take pride in it as they should and dont need some asshat without any accountability ruining it for others before it is live. Same reason there was a strict NDA for beta.

[Selova]

They don't do it because of the shit show it causes.

Story is a big thing with this game. Ive seen fcs break apart because of people who rushed to lvl and spoil the end of HW story. People are assholes and this is their game. They take pride in it as they should and dont need some asshat without any accountability ruining it for others before it is live. Same reason there was a strict NDA for beta.

PTR's have nothing to do with lore or story. The entire purpose of a PTR is entirely to test classes/jobs and see how they perform at max level and report bugs and give feedback regarding said classes/jobs so that they can balance/fix them before the expansion launches. The developers in FFXIV are really good about implementing changes and adjustments to classes/jobs that need them in comparison to other mmo's that mostly use PTR's to more easily locate and fix bugs. I don't really think PTR's are needed in this game as badly as other mmo's, but it would help curve all of the ridiculous knee-jerk responses to job changes despite the fact that no one has any data or evidence how said jobs are going to perform at max level.

[Freyt]

I don't really see the need for this. We're not exactly competing to finish the story first or something. We're not competing with each other in order to get the best gear. Even now, with PVP, gear will be essentially worthless. As far as PVP is concerned, it's generally an everybody wins type of game, and there's no major incentive to be on the top. Competitive gameplay exists as a very small minority of content within the game, and changes to such small pieces of a game don't warrant investment into a test server of some kind.

I think it's plain to see that everyone is merely concerned with the overall state of balance between classes, but there is no real reason to fix issues that may arise a week or so in advance to an official patch, which is all the more reason not to actually invest money into such an effort.

[SpeckledBurd]

They don't really need any story in it, at best they need a few zones and a few reused 8-man raids and 4-man dungeons that have been slightly retuned to the next max level.

[Raim]

I imagine it would be easy enough to make a PTR with premade max level characters that have quests deactivated, and locked to only using certain zones. They did basically that for the press event anyway. Just put people in a zone with target dummies and let them at it.

[Skapoc]

Yes it is. Developers aren't perfect and stuff falls through the cracks all the time. Sometimes the player base needs to actual get their hands on stuff to fully test and make sure its ready for release as well.

A PTR doesn't have to spoil anything, it can be limited to one zone or a select number of fights. Hell they can be old zones and fights as long as you can test the classes and see how the skill and job balance is working.

It would save a lot of manpower(no need to hire anyone to test really, players do it for free) and it leads to a better game overall.