Public Test Servers

[arus2001]

Public Test Servers.

Game patches have a long way to travel from conception to actual implementation on live services. One of the stages – Quality Assurance - involves thorough testing of new content, but it’s not always enough to cover the nearly infinite amount of scenarios that are prone to occur when legions of players eventually bite into a patch on the live servers.


As a way to reduce the likelihood of imbalance and bugs reaching live servers unnoticed and unresolved, we have for some time been working to launch two Public Test Servers (PTS), one for our North American Aion players and one for European Aion players. The two servers will after much preparation open their gates for the first time on the 29th of April.


In order to test new content, the Public Test Servers will implement patches a little bit earlier than our regular Aion servers. They will be devoted to testing these patches for bugs and errors and are as such not suitable for “main characters” to be created on since characters may at any time be wiped or changed to accommodate testing needs.


There will not be any pre-made characters available to you, but the servers will be configured to boost game progress with a few stimulating settings, including a very substantial increase to experience gain, Abyss Point gain, crafting/gathering and item drop rates. You will be able to create both Elyos and Asmodian characters in the happy spirit of testing, but rest assured that no Public Test Server characters will ever count towards your account character slot limit.


Details on how to access the Public Test Server for NA and EU respectively will follow very soon.


Until then...


Fly high, Daevas,


- The Aion Community Team

Part of me is amused.

Anyway, if it somehow results in the speeding up of new content releases, I can't really complain. Though, I'm sure someone will feel it's just making us do the testing for them so they can save a buck while charging $25 for server transfers.

[Pooky]

Public Test Servers.



Part of me is amused.

Anyway, if it somehow results in the speeding up of new content releases, I can't really complain. Though, I'm sure someone will feel it's just making us do the testing for them so they can save a buck while charging $25 for server transfers.

It better be like quadruple fucking exp and drop rates to make me ever want to roll on them. Though the thought of actually using them to do a true speed run to 50 on SM is kinda amusing. Pretty sure with what I know now I can hit 50 in a week on a clean slated server...

[Elvis]

Does Aion only have a Korean dev team? Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe they care what we think D:

[Veyron]

Kinda excited, can play a Class you always wanted to fully geared, then remember that it's loltest server, still fun though lol.

[Katlan]

It better be like quadruple fucking exp and drop rates to make me ever want to roll on them.

That's not even enough, even w/ 10x XP, who wants to spend even a weekend lving a toon that's gonna be wiped in a few days/weeks. The novelty of lving a toon and getting 4m+ per kill (off 40+ elites solo) will wear off pretty fast. Even if shit was 100% drop.

Don't see how the toons will be fully geared. You won't be doing quests, just pure grinding. So all your stuff will be from drops or maybe that random instance you do. But even then... doing like FT over and over again wont be as good XP as just grinding. And the temp item vender stuff is rly expensive.. I don't see ppl spending 400k/500k to buy a temp item

[Veyron]

Assuming they'll make it beyond easy to get to 50 (55 even?) because there will be quite a bit to test at max level, or so I assume.

[Hitoshura]

Signed!

[niwaar]

Honestly, "a very substantial increase to experience gain" has to be much more than 4x, or even 10x. In order to realistically see what needs to be seen on a test realm you need to be of the level they wish to test. This particular patch has multiple levels of testing needed, so yes this does make sense to some degree. However, a good amount of the testing does NOT involve the mid 30s daily quests or even the level 40 daily quests. It involves the new abilities we will be getting at 40 and their impact on PvP from 40 through 50 and into the "end game".

While I can see them not allowing premades, because quite simply they barely got their forums fixed to something better than the crapfest they were for the first 7 months. They sure as heck don't have the infrastructure to do premades. They do have the ability to copy people onto these servers, as they just announced their paid transfer system is now online. (Don't get me started on the fact that we should have seen free transfers and server merges already, that is another rant.)

In the end, it may be a fun little day off of the reality of the game to participate in their PTR. Hell I have used the WoW PTRs quite a bit over the years, but not being able to use your own character or a character premade that has decent gear? Not even worth the time.

The XP/Level thing aside, how do you test things when you don't have access to gear, or any sort of economy? Who in their right mind is going to do FT for weapons? Who is going to do DP to get gear? Hell, who is going to do missions/krall/etc for the blue armor that most people rely on from 38-50?

<end rant>

[Katlan]

doesn't matter if they give you a special item that instantly gives you 50, HAVE FUN HAVING NO MONEY TO BUY SKILL BOOKS. And unless they give each new toon like 10m to start off w/, you aren't getting those skill books

[arus2001]

I wouldn't rule out them slipping in extra NPCs that could sell blues/golds on the cheap, or even instant dings that give you 30m EXP just for clicking okay a few times. The real comedy of this, though, would be them forgetting to remove those from live realms and people being able to stealthily abuse them until QQ ensues.

[Imitarate]

It seems relatively trivial to set up an NPC script that would set your experience to a specific level. Just have it override the normal inability to delevel, and you can have people test any given level range. Sure, most people will sit at max level, but the lion's share of test material should be at max level anyways; this isn't really a bad thing. Those interested in testing the other level ranges will be able to.

I can't imagine spending too much time on the test server myself, unless I suddenly want to quit that month. It seems like it would easily spoil you, spending too much time with everything turned up to 11.

[Fayttt]

10 bucks more people play on the test realm(s?) then live servers.

[niwaar]

10 bucks more people play on the test realm(s?) then live servers.

I wouldn't take that bet ... losing money aint my style.

It seems relatively trivial to set up an NPC script that would set your experience to a specific level. Just have it override the normal inability to delevel, and you can have people test any given level range. Sure, most people will sit at max level, but the lion's share of test material should be at max level anyways; this isn't really a bad thing.

It would seem relatively trivial, but this is NCSoft we are talking about here. They don't have much of a track record for fixing trivial things after all.

As for most of the testing being at max level... Well that would be the case if this patch wasnt 90% for lower levels. New abilities may effect level 50s but these abilities are at level 40. The daily quest system and most of the other changes start in the mid 30 range. So most of the testing that needs to be done is with this content. Even if you can do the quests at 50, does merely completing the quest at that level really constitute testing more than the "does it work when I click it?" category.

No matter what you think of this ptr, good or bad. This is another example of NCSoft's Smoke and Mirrors technique of running the game. Trying to make us think something good is going on while at best it is just "meh" and at worst its just flat out horrid.

[Katlan]

10 bucks more people play on the test realm(s?) then live servers.

That's a bad bet to take, not hard to beat 2k ppl per server ;p
and lol @ them needing to PTR something that's alrdy live on korean servers. A few daily quests and CC mechanic's.

[Pooky]

That's a bad bet to take, not hard to beat 2k ppl per server ;p
and lol @ them needing to PTR something that's alrdy live on korean servers. A few daily quests and CC mechanic's.

My bet is they're getting the PTR up and as stable as possible now with an "easy" patch so that it's live to speed up the 2.0 release. Hopefuy with this we'll be getting the PTR patches around the same time as korea (after translation ofc) so there's less of a delay between the patch release dates.

[SaviorSelf]

I'd be fine with not reading any of the NPC cutscenes or anything. Just move on with the content already. That's the one thing I miss about FFXI; updates were released at the same time, except Japanese people had a more convenient time to have it occur. This shit is like, 6 months + difference in game content. It's a whole different game over in Korea at this point...

[Pooky]

I'd be fine with not reading any of the NPC cutscenes or anything. Just move on with the content already. That's the one thing I miss about FFXI; updates were released at the same time, except Japanese people had a more convenient time to have it occur. This shit is like, 6 months + difference in game content. It's a whole different game over in Korea at this point...

Koreans got the 1.9 patch around 2.5-3 weeks ago iirc, we're in no way 6 moths behind.

[Pyree]

It's been out for a month in Korea, and it'll be at least two more weeks I'm sure before it comes here. We're around 6 weeks behind Korea.

[SaviorSelf]

I said months, woops. Meant weeks.

Spoiler: show

[Pooky]

Getting Started with the Public Test Server

The public test server (PTS) is accessed with a separate Aion client. You must install this PTS client, even if Aion is installed on your PC already. There are two ways to go about with this, one which requires much less time and bandwidth. Keep in mind that while these instructions will help you get started, the PTS server will not be available before the 29th of April.


Method 1: Duplication of Already Existing Installation

* Browse to the Aion installation directory on your local hard drive.
* Copy the folder and paste it into the same location (for example, “C:/Program Files/NCsoft/”).
* Rename the new folder to AionPTS. The name must be changed to exactly “AionPTS” for the copy to work.
* Boot up the NCsoft launcher. The NCsoft launcher should detect the newly created folder as the PTS client and list it in the left pane of the launcher.
* Patch (if needed), and launch the game!
* Log in using the same username and password that you do as on the normal servers. Enjoy!



Method 2: Fresh Installation

* Download the 9.8 GB Aion PTS client installer from one of the following locations:
o GamersHell
o FilePlanet

* Launch the installer and follow the installation instructions. A new game title, “AionPTS,” will appear in your NCsoft launcher.
* Patch (if needed), and launch the game!
* Log in using the same username and password that you do as on the normal servers. Enjoy!



Enjoying playing the test version, and let us know about any comments or questions you have or bugs you find. Please note that the PTS is not a suitable server to play main characters on, since characters may at any point in time be removed or modified due to testing reasons. In other words, such characters are temporary.

So next weekend = fun time?