Focus Test 4/20 @ 3PM EDT

[Hamma]

https://twitter.com/xalorn/status/325336520124940288

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/focus-test-indar-4-20-19-00-utc-noon-pacific.118089/

Come join us tomorrow for a focus play test. Hoping to get folks from all over the world in on this one on a much more stable Test server!

Focus test is for the Indar rush lane battle flow and recent UI improvements.

19:00 UTC on Saturday April 20th

For North Americans, that's...
Noon Pacific
2pm Central
3pm Eastern

We may have some surprises for you if all goes well, so be sure to patch early and bring your outfit and your friends!


Patchers:
SOE Players: http://launch.soe.com/installer/PS2_Test_setup.exe
Pro7 Players: http://launch.soe.com/installer/PS2_PSG-Livetest_setup.exe

Download, install in seperate directory, let it patch.

[bpostal]

https://twitter.com/xalorn/status/325336520124940288

http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/focus-test-indar-4-20-19-00-utc-noon-pacific.118089/

Excellent, my weekend's about fucked (because education) but hopefully we'll get a good turnout regardless.

[EVILPIG]

The timing for that is really bad, especially with 1 day's notice. I'm probably not even going to be home tomorrow. I guess we'll see, but doubt we'll make much of a showing.

[p0intman]

they should hold the test at 4:20 pm edt on 4/20.

[basti]

Patchers:

SOE Players: http://launch.soe.com/installer/PS2_Test_setup.exe

Pro7 Players: http://launch.soe.com/installer/PS2_PSG-Livetest_setup.exe




Inform ALL the MIller folks, and every other outfit from every other server!

BE THE FUCK THERE! :D

[Phantomdestiny]

they should hold the test at 4:20 pm edt on 4/20.

that would be too late for European players

[Rolfski]

Hamma, maybe make an official news item out of this? Although SOE does a lousy job at scheduling and promoting these test events, at least it would be nice if everyone shows up in numbers for a change.

[LeilaniRock]

Was just on, they are trying to bring in the Harasser!! But Higby just said they are worried about the stability of the build.

Fingers crossed, and let's hop on the TS everybody!! See ya

[ChipMHazard]

Here's hoping that it's going to be more stable this time around.

The big surprise was that... Hang on to your tights.... There was no surprise!... SURPRISE!

[Assist]

Seemed to be more people this time around for the test. Hopefully they got some good infos out of it.

+1 to Shaql from VHOT/Waterson trolling the entire platoon I was in by playing a "We have locked down Hossin" at the end of the alert, when everyone was asking what the surprise was :P

[Phantomdestiny]

I demand my kinder surprise

[basti]

Seemed to be more people this time around for the test. Hopefully they got some good infos out of it.

+1 to Shaql from VHOT/Waterson trolling the entire platoon I was in by playing a "We have locked down Hossin" at the end of the alert, when everyone was asking what the surprise was :P

That guy was really fucking with a lot of us. :D

[KaskaMatej]

Seemed to be more people this time around for the test.

Yea, at the beginning of the alert, I asked Higby how many people are online and he said over 500. A good sample group for focus test.

Sadly, there weren't many NC (they had around 20% pop for the majority of test) so, please, if you're NC and have time at the next test, join us.

Squad I ran stayed to the East of the map the whole two hours (Howling pass, Crimson Bluff, Rashnu) and we rarely delved more into the interior of Indar.

We were more attacking and didn't really defend much (fights were over when we got there) but were outnumbering the enemy 2:1 most of the time so defence didn't really had a chance. I can't really tell if bases are defensible enough. Maybe next time.

I did have a good time though (apart from the frame rate problems that happen when there were many people around), and didn't crash. Client is much more stable than it was a week ago, which is great.

[CrimsonTemplar]

Well it was quite a surprise, let me tell you. It was surprising too see something, which could cause so much surprise and redefine the paradoxical depth of what a surprise can be. This in itself, was of quite a surprising nature but surprisingly it could not possibly be compared to the extreme surprise we got, of whose nature was indeed of enormous surprise, causing us to re-evaluate and ruminate on the existence of the very meaning of surprise. Deep, chaotic and surprising, it has certainly filled us with a surprising amount of awe of the very power of a surprise. This my friends, has certainly enlightened and surprised me of the very surprisingly philosophical nature of this game.

If you can make sense of the above, I will quite assuredly be surprised. There was none by the way. At least not yet. Just so you know.

[Rolfski]

Successful test I would say numbers wise. My outfit got a platoon up and I saw quite some other outfits showing up there in numbers. Still lots of major outfits missing however, the biggest disappointment is of course: WHERE'S OUR SURPRISE?

If they couldn't get the Harrasser in at time they should have thought of something else (like Lashers shooting disco balls or something)

[Saintlycow]

what was the surprise

[Stanis]

Had a thoroughly good time.
@assist. yep shaql got a few of us!


VS seemed to be attacking well - so from that perspective it worked well.
I think attackers should need people on points.

One worry I have is that population imbalance will make some fights less fun. You'll be pushing into 3 or so close territories that are you only options from the warpgate and the enemy is not at threat for 12 minutes.

[ChipMHazard]

what was the surprise

Nothing... SURPRISE! Are you surprised? You should be, it was quite surprising:p

[Dragonskin]

Looked cool. I only got to play for like 22 minutes on the test server. It seemed to really focus fights. Hope it comes out soon.

[Bocheezu]

I think it went well and don't have really anything to complain about. The satellites becoming actual bases instead of automatic forward spawns for attackers is a huge change and it will be interesting to actually fight over a satellite.

It takes a little getting used to how the timers work; if you see 00:00, it means defenders have recapped, but the tickets are still on the attacker's side. This should get changed to just being one long bar (for each attacker) instead of the two-bar tug-of-war type thing it is now. When attackers have the cap, the timer goes down; when defenders have the cap, the timer goes up. People will know that 30:00 means full resecure for a 3-point base. I guess maybe the "time to full resecure" could be in parentheses or something. It's a small thing and not a big deal either way.

Higby asked for people to focus on the actual base layouts as far as which bases are too hard/too easy to defend. I think this refinement is not necessary; some imbalance gives flavor, as long as it's not out of control, and I don't think any of the bases are that imbalanced. The cap points for tower satellites are outside the towers now; that would have been the only issue. I would worry less about base layout and worry more about punching out some more continents, personally.

[Rolfski]

Satellite hard points becoming full bases significantly slows down the pacing I noticed.
Also, whatever faction is at the canyon South East Warpgate on Indar is even more at a disadvantage now. Pushing out from there has become more difficult than ever.

[Mordelicius]

Likes:
- longer times to take down generators
- hard-to-capture satellites
- a lot less ninja capping
- enemy paths are more predictable now (only downside is that it could be too repetitive). The difference between tic-tac-toe and chess is that chess can still be predictable but is not repetitive. Tic-tac-toe is just plain highly predictable AND repetitive, hence the gameplay value of tic-tac-toe is very low.

Dislikes:
- R.I.P the Crown. I didn't even get to see the B & C points during the Crown fight. A should be on the tower. B & C should be closer. Why? Attackers are heavily favored since they will have a much closer spawn point.
- The long cap is ok (slows down ninja cappers) but there's no way to speed it up.
- There's not enough players to fully test the battle flow. They should advertise it in the main game client launcher.

Suggestions:
- They should experiment adding extra door shields in infantry areas. These shields should also have their generators. Look how the vehicle shields do wonders in an Amp station fight. It adds dynamic: either rush A / hack vehicle terminal or rush shield/sunderer in or Galaxy spam drop.

example: a shielded choke point/short cut with a generator on each side. shield prevents shooting either way. It can be destroyed or repaired on either side. Want a short cut? destroy it. Want to slow down the enemy? keep it up or hold the choke point.

- Add another captureable / easily defensible device that increase cap times of a base. In short, if the enemy can capture it, the cap rate should speed up.

- They should ask for community feedback on the terrain before they make wholesale landscape changes. I saw a lot of terraforming going on. I haven't tested them, but there are areas that have to be protected since they are already great links to each other.

[Hyncharas]

The Crown is one of those sites which will always get attention; Saerro Listening Post on Esamir and The Bastion on Amerish draw similar crowds, at least on Waterson. I would, however, like to see it's layout remodelled, or possibly designs for a second, less towering outpost for air vehicles that could be sprinkled around the continents. A good example of this is West Foothills Airdock, located on Amerish...

The Crown currently sticks out like a sore thumb compared to every other location that outpost-type can be found.

[HelpLuperza]

https://twitter.com/xalorn/status/325336520124940288

Sigh I cannot believe i missed it Q_Q. Its exam week, so I have not been able to play PS2 much. Hopefully they will have more tests in the future.

Do you know if they have a uniform way of annoucing them?
Also, in the future, you may want to consider inviting legendary PS2 tester Ash87 http://forums.station.sony.com/ps2/index.php?threads/feedback-journal-ash.114590/

He's kind of an inspiration to me and a few other people about how to report bugs with his Journal.

[Rolfski]

Do you know if they have a uniform way of annoucing them?
.

I hope they will for future focus tests: Schedule them more ahead so outfits can plan for them plus announcing test events in the regular game launcher to make sure everybody is aware.