RiskIBiski: It's good to play a game with 300 UI options, multiple menus, and hundreds of options, but if the funadementals are not in place (movement, basic combat), then the concept is mostly fluffed up.
Without a UI you cannot move or enter into combat. I also dont mean huge options and menus, I mean the UI that allows you to control your character, to interact with the world and to utilise the equipment for that character. The basics are the interface.
The ease of just creating a character and loading into the game.
Does the character creation screen begin to immerse me into the world? Or is it just a static background?
Is the base character creation enough to see the options of creating different types of characters of the same race? (Obviously this won't be fleshed out right away, but character creation is important for immersion!)
The first impression when your character loads in - Does my races homeland inspire me to roam around the entire area and just sight see for the first hour or two?
Is crafting in? Does it look decent? Can it be added to?
Can I access my bag, UI, system menu, etc with ease?
Is the combat smooth or is it clunky? Are there delays when casting spells or even opening up my own inventory?
TL;DR Is the foundation strong enough to build from? For some of us who have been testing and supporting games in alpha - it's very easy for us to tell from first impressions whether the game has potential or not.
I've never been involved in a testing phase for a game of this calibur, but as a web developer, I've had my share of testing applications before release and Fancy did a great job outling the important aspects of usability and functionality. Those are key in making sure the game flows. Fluidity in an immersive game is important. If anything breaks that flow, the immersion is off and your senses immediately realize how unreal the game is. Obviously, we're not going for alternate reality here, but immersion is important. Strange bugs, broken scenary/clipping, UI choices that don't make sense, etc are what I would look for to make sure immersion isn't being broken and functionality makes sense.
Does every button open the correct function, can I resize correctly. Can everything in the uit be displayed correctly and is it easy readable.
I tend to look for glitches in the world or camera views. Fall through the world, open patches in dungeons or caves, environment with 'holes' in them. Where are the ceilings, zonelines or bottom of bodies of water and what happens.
The response of my actions and my character with its surroundings. Are the available animations fluent and remain so under variable conditions.
I tend to follow paths of npc's or other AI to see if they don't run into things or vanish into a glitch.
Only at a later date am I looking into crunching numbers. Another is my location in the world, does it match with the coordinates given.
Do the interactables work in the world?
If I'm able to have combat or craft log i'll look into that.
Other animations of the character.
In a later stage, i'll get to really feeling the "play/fun" aspect of the game. Is the game shown or unveiled as intended? etc.
1. Feel of combat and how classes synergize with each other.
2. Sense of wonder, does the game world make me want to explore.
3. NPC AI. In combat does each fight bring something different or is every fight a tank and spank. NPC that fill out the world. Are their NPC kids playing in the street? Does NPC say random things to me that fit my character? Does the NPCs make the world feel real?
4. Story. I need to feel like I am part of the story, that I am uncovering something deep and meaningful.
Frustration comes from an expected result of input not conforming to the expectation.
Movement
Dialogue triggers
NPC actions
Those are the top three for me.
NOTE:
Not mistakes. I can laugh off jumping to late or other such nonsense.
I look for , or make note of, brakes in past experiences of common actions. If a consistency bug or change in expected result is found, then that gets a priority look.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - With PA Shakeout 1&2 behind us we now sift through all of the amazing feedback and bug reports to help us with PA5 - What is the first thing you look for when testing a game in early testing phases, like Pre-Alpha? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
I'm quite curious as to what VR learned from those shakeout sessions. What things worked, what things didn't work, etc.
Kilsin my good man, the first few things I look for when testing a game in PRE-ALPHA are :
1) Can I log into the game?
2) Assuming #1 is true, do I have pants?
3) If #2 == NO, are pants available from a nearby small creature (e.g. bat, snake, bug, skeleton, etc.)?
4) If #2 == YES, can I wear my fancy pants in any other inventory slot?
It's all about the style, you Wonder from Down Under!
Bards must always look good, while making their party look good.
Well, it's all a bit different these days, innit? Pre-Alpha *should* be the stage *before* any testing hehe.
Since we are allowed to see the game before when traditional testing would usually first occur, I'm happy just to do systems testing, ie. make sure things aren't 'broken'.
That we are able to actually play 'a game' in a state that is actually enjoyable is almost confusing to the testing effort (as we have seen in some people's comments about how the game has, apparently, gone 'backwards').
That said, PA4 had gameplay that *appeared* to be more sophisticated and fun, so it is perhaps not unexpected that people want to 'play a game' not 'test' or are frustrated with apparent progress.
Those who have followed closely, recently, will know a *lot* has changed under the hood and is changing, er, on top of the hood, in the areas we are seeing. No doubt we are intentionally being should the stuff in progress, since that is what needs testing most?
All that said: For PA5 Proper, I'm hoping to have more time on the server, more zones to explore, more classes and races, maybe even some more systems and features, if their testing would be helpful.
Would like to be able to make some YouTube content. Maybe if they are pre-recorded, short videos, it wouldn't be too onerous for VR to watch and approve them? I would understand if they don't allow anyone to stream live just yet.
Would like a little more direction as to what is wanted from us, even if that direction is "we intentionally want you to play as if undirected" hehe.
I have very little experience with early testing phases. But I can say the first thing I look for when I first experience a game is whether or not it is user friendly. Graphics are nice, but more important to me is "does doing this thing in game have the cause and effect that I expect it to have." It needs to feel like it makes sense right from the start.
I check to see if the gear and wepones look correct . the size and how you use them. Does the range feel correct. Does the movement feel correct Forward, backward, left, right, jump, run. does the dodge work and feel correct. If you are running do the building , trees, rocks impead your movement. If you are in a river does it move you downstream.
these are some of the first things I look at.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - With PA Shakeout 1&2 behind us we now sift through all of the amazing feedback and bug reports to help us with PA5 - What is the first thing you look for when testing a game in early testing phases, like Pre-Alpha? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
I think key to his question is "early testing phases" I think if we go looking for a "game" we may be disapointed... we have the makings of a game but it's not all there yet.
The first thing I'm going to look for is "Can I break it?"
can I zone in and out here? can I reapeatdly zone in and out here.. what if I reapeatedly zone in and out 5-10 times will I crash?
what about this window, can I make it crash? can I make it deform out of position? can I loose it off the edge of the screen?
What happens if I change game resolution 25 times? am I screwed and can't get any windows?
Faction works? we shall see.....
What else do they "claim" is in and working?
Smooth, well playing game.. in Pre or even Alpha?... I wouldn't expect it.
In the early testing phases, I look heavily into what the devs want to be tested for that test period. Outside of what the devs want to be tested...
In the early periods:
Vandraad said:Kilsin said:Community Debate - With PA Shakeout 1&2 behind us we now sift through all of the amazing feedback and bug reports to help us with PA5 - What is the first thing you look for when testing a game in early testing phases, like Pre-Alpha? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
I'm quite curious as to what VR learned from those shakeout sessions. What things worked, what things didn't work, etc.
We will show off our learnings from the Shakeout sessions in PA5, as we did from Shakeout 1 to Shakeout 2 mate.
Kilsin said:Community Debate - With PA Shakeout 1&2 behind us we now sift through all of the amazing feedback and bug reports to help us with PA5 - What is the first thing you look for when testing a game in early testing phases, like Pre-Alpha? #MMORPG #CommunityMatters
First check if the basic movements is fluid ( jumping, running , walking ..staggering and so forth). then basic operations opening of character screen , quest logs, interface options and et. working as they should. Then basic combat sequences is itfluid...are skills doing what they are are suppose to do? Terrain inspection of glitches or akward collisions. This is what i look for in the first day of testing.
Normally "Pre-alphas" are much more basic than PROTF. Yal are really more like a late Alpha phase.
But for where this game is at, the biggest thing is simply playability. Do I fall through the world in certain places/abilities used? Does the game run smoothly or constant low FPS or a heavy spike in FPS. Hows the delay between pushing a button/ability and it being executed.
Further along development, focus on the actual gameplay and world. Does this quest get broken? If I delete a quest can I pick it up again? Can I somehow use ability A and B together to do naughty things? Etc
Closer to beta/lauch its mostly all details. Is an NPC's name/questlog misspelled? How does the experience rate feel? etc