I suggest closed testing

[fish911503 136]

I think you guys/gals (dev team) should switch to closed testing for this mod. I dont know with maybe 10 or 20,000 testers. It seems to me with the "type" of people playing this game and the "way" they are playing it

is an obstacle to the proper development.

[Caviano 287]

lol wow. That is all I have to say about that.

Let's limit the game to the people who play the game the way it was supposedly SUPPOSED to be played... that way, when the game is "released" (which it won't be), we have no idea how to fix the game in regards to exploits and loopholes that the open beta shows.

Think about things dude... think about things.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Caviano

[NeonSaber 0]

Why would that make sense? Having it open gets input from every type of player interested in the game, while having it closed would help...how?

" It seems to me with the "type" of people playing this game and the "way" they are playing it

is an obstacle to the proper development."

Those "type" of players will be playing the "way" they want anyway, so nothing would change.

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

Nah where is the fun in that? ... what i did like is how they added alpha testing today, where they first release a 'beta-alpha'-patch to be tested by whom ever wants to, and doesn't mind about loosing their stuff or have their computer crash... which may pre-test a patch or part of it for any major bugs... to then release it to the masses to iron out any other mishaps.

See the thing with alphas & beta's is, the more monkeys with typewriters you have, the more likely it is they will find something broken or unintended, and thus the more likely you end up with 'a shakespear' :)

Edited July 12, 2012 by L0GIN

[fish911503 136]

Maybe my suggestion IS misguided but I definitely believe the sheer numbers playing this game and the amount of cheating and non constructive feedback is hurting the development. I could be wrong.

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

I think you are wrong, the cheating is actually good! seeing this will need to be dealt with at some point, why not now! and the feedback can be a tad horrible here, but do your own thing and give the best feedback you can, it will only stimulate others to do so aswell, and if you see a realy offensive post, just report the guy so that the mods can do something about it. I think it's fair we help them out with this, as i can not keep up with treads by myself and even if there were 5 of me for every part of the forum one, i would still have a hard time keeping moderation up. There is a report button and it's there to be used, use it and force people to behave (or GTFO like they like to say themselves)... it may be a struggle equal to that against zombies ingame, but if we don't try we will automatically loose!

And i think the Dev's are more than qualified to shift good from bad ideas ;)

Edited July 12, 2012 by L0GIN

[Zeromentor 169]

The devs ignore non-constuctive feedback and any suggestions they dislike. Infact, if they want it they go for it, and if they don't, all our whining and moaning is just that and will gain us nothing in the end.

Like trying to tell a painter how to paint without paying them. They only care about what could help them do better, and anything else is hot air.

Also, closed testing is worse than open testing. You have less people and less combinations of equipment (software AND hardware) to test with. Also, you can't know if the database will crash if just 1 more player is added unless you push it to the limits, as well as everything else.

So closed testing is a bad idea. Infact, closed testing is always a bad idea. At the very least, any number of random people could find a bug, but it is that one person that tells EVERYONE and their grandma how to do it that forces them to fix it right away and not leave it for later (potentially causing more problems down the road).

[fish911503 136]

The devs ignore non-constuctive feedback and any suggestions they dislike. Infact, if they want it they go for it, and if they don't, all our whining and moaning is just that and will gain us nothing in the end.

Like trying to tell a painter how to paint without paying them. They only care about what could help them do better, and anything else is hot air.

Also, closed testing is worse than open testing. You have less people and less combinations of equipment (software AND hardware) to test with. Also, you can't know if the database will crash if just 1 more player is added unless you push it to the limits, as well as everything else.

So closed testing is a bad idea. Infact, closed testing is always a bad idea. At the very least, any number of random people could find a bug, but it is that one person that tells EVERYONE and their grandma how to do it that forces them to fix it right away and not leave it for later (potentially causing more problems down the road).

maybe im unclear on what open/closed testing is. I thought closed meant the devs keepinf some control about over whos testing their game. If closed testing is ALWAYS a bad idea then why is it done?

[Zeromentor 169]

maybe im unclear on what open/closed testing is. I thought closed meant the devs keepinf some control about over whos testing their game. If closed testing is ALWAYS a bad idea then why is it done?

Generally to avoid what happens in open betas and the released games, people posting about what they don't like. Would you like someone sitting over your shoulder as you work, telling you that everything you do SUCKS and is TERRIBLE, and that they could do a better job with NO experience?

Well, that's what they have to deal with, and many times they'd rather make the foundation of the game (Alpha) before allowing people to test it (Beta) and then releasing it. But look at newer games, many of which seem more like Betas on release than actually finished products, and I don't mean MMORPGs.

(Examples can be easily seen from EA. Seriously.)

[L0G!N (DayZ) 149]

Trust me, various MMORPGs are partial beta's aswell :/ ... or look at how Diablo3 ended up with no endgame, but what will Blizzard care, they already got your moneyz ...

It sad what part of this business has become (fast cash for the least amount of effort, for a product that is digital anyways and only needs to be produced once and then can be copied endlessly) and it's even more sad that we keep rewarding gamemanufacturers for selling us half finished products, by still buying them because 'we can't judge' untill we purchase and use. And more than often see companies promise features that never make it in, because they trust on half the community forgetting about hollow promisses made 6 months ago. And how we still let them fool us with expensive CGI that has no bearing in the gaming experience what so ever... and how game journalists always write how this next release is going to blow you away with out taking into account that it's more likely going to be another halfbaked product like the last release...

And that is why i realy like how this game is developed, now it's somewhat annoying i had to buy arma b4 i could play it, and if it had turned out not to be for me i would have spend that €20,- for nothing. But then again i'm a smoker and if i get more than 4 days out of this mod, than it be worth it... and sofar i am enjoying myself so the money is atleast worth more than 4days of cigarettes... but atleast i am getting to see the game, and i can somewhat track where Rocket wants to go with it, if i don't like it by the time he will ask for my money (if ever), then i just wont buy the game ... but atleast i had a chance to see every part of it and judge it b4 spending money. Which is more than i can say about a lot of games, where all you have to go on is a CGI some preselected ingameshots cut/pasted in some flashy video, and X game-magazines writing about how great it is because that's the only way they make money (aka. they just sell 2 pages to a game, and no gamecompany is buying those 2 pages if it saying 'it sucks' for 2 pages long), if you are lucky you can find some more information on fansites, but seeing there are largely FANS there, it will be hard to get objective information, esp. when there are only closed beta's ...

So the more transparent the better it is for us customers, and if you inform yourself about gamemaking and modding you will soon stop buying various games from various companies that sell a mod or just a reskin as a new game. And if a gameproducer isn't showing you what he's got, and is open about it, then best stay away from it no matter how good it looks... the cake is a lie ... and also remember promisses made about features and slap them around their ears ... if they don't give atleast a wel thought reason for it having been a lie, then just don't buy the game !! Vote with your wallet and use your brain befor using your wallet ;)

Edited July 13, 2012 by L0GIN

[llodka 4]

If a game has a massive community of testers so much feedback gets lost in the inevitable spam.

There is a finite point of testers needed, and anything over that just muddys the water.

It has some merit

[vesmo 21]

This is a fair point. I feel like the way this project blew into such massive proportions is acting as a hindrance to the actual project. The dev team is under a huge workload, which is not helped by the fact that the server network is not really organized, i.e. whenever a new beta patch or an update comes out some servers are running older beta patches with different updates of the mod than others. This makes reporting bugs difficult as the devteam don't know whether it is an actual bug or just a contradiction in the patches (which is why you see the question "what version were you running" over and over again on the forums)

And yes, there are those entitled gamers who think they have some right to decide what kind of game this becomes. They come to the forums and make those 10 threads about the same 10 things over and over every day, making navigating the forums for actual good suggestions a pain in the ass. But I don't think there is a chance to go into closed testing anymore. Even if rocket made such a decision, people would be so pissed off the future of DayZ might be compromised (how many would not buy the standalone if the player base is cut down at this moment).

[Lady Kyrah 1110]

I love the OP:

"If peoples don't play the way i think the game should be played, Rocket should move to closed beta, so NOBODY gets to play."

If you had read and watched rocket's comments about what DayZ is, you would know that it's exactly what he intented.

[enforcer1975 1111]

Good idea, those with more than 5 murders don't get to play the mod until it's done!! ;)

[deadlyslob (DayZ) 42]

If you're writing this post just because you want to be apart of an exclusive club,

you're going to have a bad time...

Open testing gets shit done faster. Faster bug reporting, server stressing and feedback especially at this stage. In fact, I'm surprised that more games DONT try this. I do like what 343 is doing with Halo 4. Making live events and getting MLG players to test it, give feedback and they actually change the game because of it...

So does DayZ :)

[llodka 4]

I love the OP:

"If peoples don't play the way i think the game should be played, Rocket should move to closed beta, so NOBODY gets to play."

If you had read and watched rocket's comments about what DayZ is, you would know that it's exactly what he intented.

Eh what?

Closed beta or alpha or whatever never means 'NOBODY'

[fish911503 136]

Im glad a couple of people understand what i was saying rather simply make assumptions and literally mis-quote me (LadyKyrah). And Im glad a couple of people thoughtfully and intelligently said why they though i was wrong. All i was saying is i think it may be of benefit if the dev team put some limit on the number of testers. Vesmos' above post was able to verbalize why better than me. My interest lies totally with this mod becoming the best possible version what it all ready is....great. But maybe having 3/4 of million people testing is a good thing. What do i know.

Edited July 13, 2012 by playZ

[wolfstriked 143]

Just give a warning that if you want stability play 1.X.X and if you want to help out then play the testing versions.Make it very clear which are testing and which are perfectly stable.