New Mercs should be released in free rotation...

[eitsch0r]

… it makes it more easy to

a) get Echo analytics or perceptions from a much greater player base
b) you can “take away” something free if it wasn’t ready yet. We are in “open beta” anyways! If ppl already threw 50kcred / 10$currency at you to get it it is sadly quite not ok to take “their” virtual goods away again.

Oh … and then i found this gem… which i have to make fun of

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dirtybomb/comments/3cjh9m/in_regards_to_phantom/
[…]We do want to get a ‘test realm’ set up where public players can get hands-on earlier.[…]

Inside an open beta test you want to create a ‘test realm’ ?

That gets me creative brainz workingz:

… BUT(!) that you try to communicate about this “challenge” is noted on a positive side in my elephant brain.

Ok, at last some serious braindump about a possible “test realm” inside the “test realm” (i also see some matrix pun lurking somewhere there) …

a) it might be interesting
b) i think it would be good if it would be used to give the competitively playing folks some insight into what is coming at them. For example if it is treated as another stage in your deployment process … instead of going live … go to “clanbeta”. Ok … this takes the “moment of surprise” out of the equasion which you are supposedly quite fond of.
c) getting this right might be difficult … but worth it. In the end every bit more feedback is very helpful.

Greetings
H

[Protekt1]

If everyone starts playing a new merc at the same time, I think it actually would skew stats away from being accurate rather than the opposite. I think the statistics aren’t even reliable in the first couple weeks because players need to learn how to both play the new merc and how to play against the new merc.

They have been putting new mercs on free rotation fairly quickly though, like a week or two after release. So people will have a chance to play the new mercs for free pretty quickly anyway.

A test realm is a good idea I think they are thinking about doing. I’d be willing to participate.

[eitsch0r]

If everyone starts playing a new merc at the same time, I think it actually would skew stats away from being accurate rather than the opposite. […]

That is true, too. And as long as there aren’t any restrictions on the amount of same mercs in a Team this is viable.

[QUOTE=Protekt1;534135][…]I think the statistics aren’t even reliable in the first couple weeks because players need to learn how to both play the new merc and how to play against the new merc.[…][/QUOTE] I second that … i feel the same. I realized that one thing that upset me, too, was the pressure to adapt to this new “playstyle-interruption”. I have to adapt, it is not a choice it is mandatory. As mandatory as staying away from dumb naders (which i mostly still dont do because i want to gib them and only when the glowing peach drops i realize my fault). Despite this being correct and the right way … it will be hard for them to resist the urge to “react quickly” to the cries of the masses which do not reflect this.

[QUOTE=Protekt1;534135][…]They have been putting new mercs on free rotation fairly quickly though, like a week or two after release. So people will have a chance to play the new mercs for free pretty quickly anyway.[…][/QUOTE] That is also true … i am not lobbying for a chance to get my hands on this new merc earlier. I am lobbying for the option to be able to take something out again to re-design which might be perceived as “too gamechanging”. This is not really possible if people already invested real world currency into it. There even might be legal repercussions which force them to keep it in if some people bought it?

[…]A test realm is a good idea I think they are thinking about doing. I’d be willing to participate.

Me too, even if i might not be the greatest of testers \o/ … it would be great if it would be an ingame option … and it would be great if it came with the ability to locally start a map in “singleplayer-mode” … like a dropdown to select if you want to play “open beta” or “test realm” or “single-player-test-map” ? UI Wizards will shiver at the thought of having to design a GUI for that

[Bloodbite]

From a marketing point of view, it makes perfect sense.

If you really want it and don’t have 50k creds spare, but you must be bleeding edge and have it NOW, feed that addiction and spend your real world dollars!!!

The fact that people WANT them that bad when they come out is very telling as to how well the current system is working. It is also worth noting how well populated the game is, and how absent all the P2W b/s is within the actual playing community. DB is doing very well for a F2P, and especially an Open Beta one with the various bugs and haxor issues.

As for a test realm… that is, I think, a terrible idea from a development point of view (specific to this situation that is). Being free to play, there is really no incentive to do that. It takes active players away from proper matches, it also provides a secondary environment for dedicated haxors to further prepare to violate the game with their activities. As a free to play game, the financial point of view of this is largely negative (zero incentive to justify the costs of new servers, time dedicated to interacting with a new fragmented community).

Test weekends for maps are doing perfectly fine. They encourage people to play en masse, keeps them hungry and keen for more without giving the armchair developers too much exposure and getting too opinionated about what the developers SHOULD be doing and why they’re failing at what they’ve been doing professionally for over a decade.