TG and POE Testing

Since January, the testing team has put in 600+ man hours into planned sessions and then several hundred hours of individual testing outside of the planned session. TG has been an integral part of the testing process at POE with almost half of the testers being from this community. So what do we do in these sessions beyond just play with the new toys? A big part of these sessions include map walkthroughs, balance, and completing the bug feedback loop.

Map Walkthroughs can include new maps or old maps. In one discussion between testers and mappers discussed Rivne and why it doesn't get as much play as some other maps. Tactical Gamers plays the map as part of it's regular rotation however players were saying that there were a couple of issues with the map. The Ukranians roll into the South City first regularly and if they claim the Graveyard as they should and if they are able to take the West Farm they have a simple task of locking the Germans into the west two flags, especially as their only ways over to the west is using the known bridges. Based on those conversations, the map was dramatically altered. The UCB's were flipped so that the Germans had the ability to secure the South City early and the Ukranians could counter the bridge lockdown by using their floating APC's to cross the river. The west farm was dropped in favor for a battle over the Middle bridge now called the Marina. The Grain farm was dropped for a flag south of the South City called the Plantation. The Ukranians can break through this early German lead with keeping the Marina bridge open and floaing APC's around bottlenecks. The end result from this was to bring flags closer together as well as create a scenario where the Ukraine can use their abilities to break through to the west side in search of that third flag. Rivne is greatly improved and with these alterations should be placed into more rotations.

New Rivne


Balance issues can happen through any number of ways and I will discuss two of them that were tweaked in this release. The first was the uniforms and background on Spies Like Us, the second one centers around the air and anti-air balance on Sambir. On Spies Like Us, the German uniforms stuck out against the background while the Ukrainians hid them well against rocks, trees and the sky. Because of this, it led to a greater likelihood that the Ukrainians would win most encounters. For an example, see if you can spot the 4 enemy in the image below. Due to this, the uniforms have been reverted to a woodland mix allowing for greater balance. Secondly, the lighting was altered to make it a little darker so that both sides effectively can hide in the dark.

Can you find the Enemy?


On Sambir, the map is HUGE and the Germans have only 1 mobile AA to cover that ground. But the German AA is far more effective then either of the two Ukranian AA separately. So how do you balance this? It was decided to add a second Gepard, but alter the way it shoots so that it can't fire in both modes at the same time. That little alteration should be enough to help balance the air which truly owns the ground. Furthermore, the anti-air pickup kits were rarely used. So in order to encourage greater use, they will receive a far stronger secondary weapon. Now, they will have a chance in an infantry fight which should encourage greater use on the battlefield. Both Spies Like Us and Sambir suffered from some significant balance issues and it's a credit to the dev's to listen to the testers and the community that it was recognized and fixed.



So how does a bug get worked on? First, it becomes recognized as an issue by a tester. The tester enters it into an organizer where he rates the severity, explains the issue and does some preliminary organization to ensure it gets assigned to the right developer. Any issue may ask for additional information throughout the process, but upon it's completion, it's up to the testers to ensure that the desired change is complete. Throughout this process, bugs can be worked through very quickly, such as the discovery that the Cammo netting supported players leading to unrealistic game play. The dev's removed the collision mesh from the cammo which solved a number of other problems also, such as bombs not hitting objects under the netting. The image below is of an odd Vepr bug that struck in an early test build. Is that Corporate doing his Titanic impression?



So ultimately, why be a tester? I personally find it rewarding to help discover the issues that I can see forsee happening on future servers. No one ever looks forward to that map where you know your going to get beaten down because your on the wrong side. It's pretty cool to also have a first run at all the new toys, but ultimately knowing that the game is going to be fun for a majority of people as opposed to a few, makes it worth my time and efforts. I know that here will be some that may slip through and trust us that those will be fixed in the near future. If you agree with me, POE is always looking for quality testers to help impact future releases and to fix the problems before they occur. Thanks again for supporting a great mod and hope to see you on our servers on July 20th when POE releases! Also, thanks to those at TG who have put in an incredible effort with Point of Existence!

TG5th Lucky Shot, POE Tester