ROI Beta questions:feedback on the beta itself, NOT about specific content or builds.

[LilFeet]

This is NOT about specifics in any of the beta builds or content, but feedback on the beta itself.
I'm curious and wondered about some of these questions. I was going to post this in the beta forums today, but they seem to be gone. Thank you in advance for answering!

1/ Did you get invited?
2/ Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing?
3/ Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester?
4/ Was downloading the client/server a smooth process.
5/ Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly?
6/ Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test?
7/ Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc....
8/ Do you have any suggestion for improvements?

my answers:
1/ Yes, I received a invite in the first round.
2/ No, I never received a email notification for any of the events, only my invite.
3/ Yes.
4/ Yes, very smooth, other then the client showing it as SoM beta. heh!
5/ Not compared to past betas. I feel the email system was not working correctly (my spam folder didn't have anything from turbine in it). I thought the forums could have used a bit more organization/specifics and a Dev tracker. NO Dev tracker made it difficult to find a direction from the Devs besides just general stuff.
6/ Nope, not enough communication IMO.
7/Every beta tool I used seemed to work correctly, I copied 5 characters, E&G worked and I was able to log in and participate in the events I could attend, even the moors event I didn't experience much lag. Events were alot of fun!
8/
- Check out the email notification system (something seems wonky).
- Have a wider range on invites sent out, the random system seemed to bite you.
- More direction from the Devs in regards to testing specific content put on the forums (not the stress tests or events themselves.

I'm sure I could think of more, but its coffee time!

Thanks again!

[Mysterion]

1/ Did you get invited? Yes
2/ Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing? Correctly
3/ Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester? Nope
4/ Was downloading the client/server a smooth process. Yes
5/ Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly? Yes
6/ Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test? During the events I participated in, yes.
7/ Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc.... Yes, char copy and E&G worked fine. Store was broken many times for me. I think I was hitting a spending cap though.
8/ Do you have any suggestion for improvements? Tell the beta forums the NDA is lifted before it blows up on twitter 5 hours before official notice is given to beta participants.

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

1) Did you get invited?
Answer: Yes. Last wave of invites I think. (First week of September)

2) Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing?
Answer: Got them all just fine. I know how to properly train spam filtering though

3) Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester?
Answer: Yep. Got into the original beta before LOTRO was released and was also a Free To Play beta tester as well as tested as many of the updates done this year as possible.

4) Was downloading the client/server a smooth process.
Answer: Having to use Pando Media Booster to download is never preferable. It works but it's invasive - we need a BitTorrent option. Anyhow, I've had the Bullroarer client installed since Free to Play so I just keep it patched and up to date concurrently with the Live client.

5) Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly?
Answer: Not completely. I can't expound upon this otherwise I'd probably get in trouble :-P

6) Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test?
Answer: For events, yes. But not all testing should require direction from Turbine. We have to test things that used to work as well as anything new they've added. You need to have a LOT of people in the beta to do this properly though.

7) Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc....
Answer: There were some difficulties with the skirmish skill levelups. Character Copy only worked once for me on one day and was completely broken the rest of the time (Copy fails).

8) Do you have any suggestion for improvements?
Answer: Here's a list:

• Assign someone to read the beta forums regularly and act upon things reported there (as well as in /bug reports of course...). In many cases things reported in the beta forums are hot button issues that can be acted upon immediately to head off anything that would come up just before or after release. Having the beta community summarize the hot button/most important things into a list for Turbine devs to read might be something to bring attention to these things.
• People who are invited to beta should be allowed to have 5 friend invites. This would allow MUCH better testing of group content and possibly raid content. The more experienced people you get in the beta, the better the group content will be tested.
• Poll each class community for things to fix for that specific class that are broken or not properly implemented. Get these things fixed before trying to revamp skills.
• Poll the entire LOTRO community for things that are broken in the game world. Have the community rank these broken things from most important to least important. Fix these things depending on how easy they are to fix. If something is too difficult COMMUNICATE with the community - we can be understanding if you actually communicate.

[Roberto_the_First]

I got invited around the 12th. I figured it wasn't worth progressing at that point, considering it was going to close soon, in prep for launch.

[LilFeet]

8) Do you have any suggestion for improvements?
Answer: Yes. Assign someone to read the beta forums regularly and act upon things reported there (as well as in /bug reports of course...). In many cases things reported in the beta forums are hot button issues that can be acted upon immediately to head off anything that would come up just before or after release. Also, I think people who are invited to beta should be allowed to have 5 friend invites. This would allow MUCH better testing of group content and possibly raid content. The more experienced people you get in the beta, the better the group content will be tested.

Seriously awesome ideas! +Rep

[RandallSnow]

1/ Did you get invited?
Yep
2/ Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing?
Got 'em all correctly
3/ Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester?
Nope
4/ Was downloading the client/server a smooth process.
Yep
5/ Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly?
Could've been better with more server uptime, crafting ingredients for all recipes, and a source of Superior Fourth Marks
6/ Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test?
Yep
7/ Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc....
The skirmish system and craft leveling were constantly broken
8/ Do you have any suggestion for improvements?
+ Replace all the Common-damage offhands with a better damage type
+ Provide cosmetic versions of all the new equipment pieces
+ Provide skirmish mark barterers for Worn Symbols of Celebrimbor, new cosmetics, and scrolls (Greater Empowerment/Greater Delving/relic removal/skirmish mark reset/etc.)
+ Reduce the shard melding cost of LI support items
+ Add the Beleriand+tier 3 orc slayer damage scrolls to the rep vendors
+ Restore all weapon DPS ratings back to previous levels
+ Fix/restore the cloth-coloring function of the hood/mask head cosmetic
+ Restore the duration of the Adamant/Invincible legacy and the fervour pip-building of skills like Battle Acuity
+ Make all crafting ingredients available in the E&G crafting area
+ Include new raid armor pieces in the raid-ready package gift boxes
+ Include new food and consumables (scrolls/potions/tokens) at the E&G tavern bartender NPC
+ Fix soldier pathing in the skirmish system
+ Have a monster spawn arena instance where players can select and spawn specific mobs to test against privately or with allies, rather than just using combat dummies
+ Open up the Ettenmoors to premium freeps, even if areas and content have to be purchased piecemeal like quest packs
+ Fix Gwin in Dunbog
+ Work on cosmetic weapons/shields
+ Make the Culling Pit a daily repeatable (with Greater Empowerment/Delving/etc. scroll rewards)
+ Have a constantly updated list of all known issues available for viewing in the forum, as well as if/when they're resolved
+ Increase the number of beta stress test chances to win lifetime subs
+ Remove the daily Store purchase limit
+ Add runes and other new relics comparable to the Profound Rune of Action (melee defense, morale, -% attack duration) in usefulness

In conclusion, a lot was tested, but not every possible thing or aspect (certain equipment combinations and new loot, etc.) could be tested. With any luck the Update 5 beta will address this.

[ChromiteSwiftpaw]

Randall, you might want to trim that last part and make it beta testing specific only. Don't make it a list of things that need to be fixed for Rise of Isengard.

I'm sure we all could make a huge list of things that still need to be fixed/worked on in RoI but that's not what this thread is about. This is about the beta testing experience and maybe how to improve it.

Great suggestions though. Maybe we should make separate thread and list all the things that need to be fixed still.

[Killien]

1/ Did you get invited?

- Yes, otherwise I couldn't be answering your questions

2/ Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing?

- All received correctly, although I totally missed the last event with the Dev's because that was only announced on the forums, not via email. Gutted.

3/ Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester?

- Yes.

4/ Was downloading the client/server a smooth process.

- I had to download the entire client 3 times to get non-corrupted installation files. First two were via my own ISP, the 3rd was via a different ISP so I don't know if this was Pando or just a case of third time lucky.

5/ Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly?

- Yes. I would always love to see more direct comms from Blue Names during any beta, but with the insane amount of NDA breaches they may have had to be more cautious than usual this time around. Very sad state of affairs... (the NDA breaches that is)

6/ Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test?

- Yes. There were focus lists available by date and week etc. I figured if they needed us to test anything else specifically they'd just have asked.

7/ Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc....

- It all worked, although getting gear packs that expand 4-5 times with different sub-levels of gear per expansion is tough to filter through and impossible to find space for. Perhaps if more Dev characters were available in the tavern with specific gear, one for LI related gear, one for Armour etc etc it would be much easier to just get what we need. Save a heap of time.

- As mentioned, a direct source of S4M's, even if later in the beta cycle, would have been very useful.

8/ Do you have any suggestion for improvements?

- Please ditch Pando. I can't be 100% sure it was my issue but I blew my entire monthly download cap on two Bullroarer clients. Neither worked. My ISP swears they don't traffic shape or otherwise, and since other local, more technical people than me agree with the ISP, I'm enclined to look at Pando which has been a source of frustration for many people before me.

- Clearer communication about server status. There was a huge problem with leaks at the start of beta and the server was down for a whole week. It seemed to be down more randomly than in the past after that too. A myriad of posts about 'stream is null' client messages could have been largely avoided I think... I might even get a Bullroarer t-shirt printed with 'stream is null'

- It's obviously impossible to stop people posting entire patch notes or early dev diaries around the internet, but I felt we were generally on a very short leash with information during this beta. Fully justified most likely, but kinda sad none the less. Was still a heap of fun tho and can't wait to get in there 'for real' next week.

[revoked]

1/ Did you get invited?
No, I never got an official invite but noticed I had RoI beta on my account information, and then saw I had access to the forums as well.

2/ Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing?
Never got a single email about beta. Sad Panda.

3/ Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester?
Yes

4/ Was downloading the client/server a smooth process.
Yes, I had no problem but that was partly because I already had the beta client on my computer and just had to update.

5/ Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly?
I think the specified feedback threads were useful. It would have been useful to have some more detailed explanation of the restrictions, particularly after the NDA was lifted but we were still not free to post certain things. More feedback/interaction overall would have been appreciated and a way to check for dev posts.

I enjoyed the beta events and felt they were well organized for such massive player participation.

6/ Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test?
See above.

7/ Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc....
All worked fine for me.

8/ Do you have any suggestion for improvements?
Dev tracker! Possibly more direct feedback about issues identified and bugged in game, or more specific things to test for. Working email system. My suspicion is that if you have opted out of emails from Turbine, you don't get anything at all related to beta.

[Thorebane]

1/ Did you get invited?
Yes, first round of invites
2/ Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing?
I got zem all
3/ Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester?
Nope
4/ Was downloading the client/server a smooth process.
Not really, something was up and ended up crashing every 5 minutes for the 3 hours it took to download and install.
5/ Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly?
At first it didn't show up the Beta only forum but after that it was fine.
6/ Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test?
Not really, they just said * see anys bugs report * and that's it
7/ Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc....

Character copy didn't work for any old EU people, also they brought up the first event on a day that no EU people could enter
8/ Do you have any suggestion for improvements?

just point out more what you are supposed to do in beta.

Also they'll always be people that break the NDA no one will ever stop it. It's more of if you want to ruin it then look, if not then don't look.

[Jadzi]

1: Did you get invited?
Aye, in the first round.

2: Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing?
I got all of them I think.

3: Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester?
Yup, my first was the Mirkwood Beta. I was also in the Enedwaith/F2P beta, and I've been in a few of the open betas.

4: Was downloading the client/server a smooth process.
Had some problems at first. The main download took three days straight once it finally started, and then when Beta opened, it took me the entire span of the first beta event and then some to get patched. The subsequent updates went smoothly, though.

5: Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly?
They ran fairly smoothly, but they didn't feel quite as communal as in past betas. It might just be the newer forums software, or the complexity and involvement, I'm not sure, but it didn't really feel like we had entire groups of people mulling over content on the forums in quite the way we did in Mirkwood.

On the other hand, we're now able to upload images with these forums, which we were unable to in the past. So we could actually illustrate our threads on the forums without risking an NDA breach. That was very helpful.

6: Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test?
I believe so, as it was often in the emails before the events, in answered questions leading up to the events, and then in global broadcasts during the events.

7: Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc....
The only real glitch I had was with character copy, one of my characters didn't make it over. On later scrutiny I think I figured out why: in prepping my characters to transfer, I had tossed a couple items in my housing chest and then copied, thinking the chests wouldn't go with me. They did in fact, and one of the items I happened to take out between the first transfer and the next, such that if it had succeeded I would have ended up with two copies of that item.

8: Do you have any suggestion for improvements?
- It's nicer when devs are more involved. In some of the past betas, we had a Bullroarer Kinship that devs were in, in fact in one beta a dev organized it and advanced it so we had a kinship house and everything. It helped create that sense of community, and it afforded us chances to share materials through the chests, and a place to organize and meet up. Was a shame not to have that this time. :\

- Communication could have been clearer. Not everything needs to be Twitter-announced long ahead of a forums announcement (or in place of same). While yes, the information was there to be had in many cases, it felt at times a bit disorganized across venues.

[BakaNiNaru]

1/ Did you get invited?
Yes.

2/ Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing?
I got all of them just fine—never hit any spam filters or anything (I primarily use a free e-mail service)

3/ Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester?
Yes.

4/ Was downloading the client/server a smooth process.
No, the same with the live client, Pando gives me corrupted files quite often. I believe it took 4 downloads (3 at least) to get a set of clean files.

5/ Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly?
Yes, about as well as forums can be.

6/ Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test?
Not quite, they had a post giving a list of things to focus on; perhaps they should have linked to it from the launcher or something to make it more visible.

7/ Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc....
Yes.

8/ Do you have any suggestion for improvements?
The communication could have been better. I have a feeling that some of it was likely hindered by some of them being away at the conventions and such, but there were cases where a simple post of timing for server downtime or maintenance would have helped, etc.

A little better support or tools would have also been handy. On my primary test character I managed to bug out an instance with a quest I could also not cancel (so I could no longer attempt that instance or the remainder of that quest chain on that character), and given the strictness of the quest chains it would take about 20 quests on another character just to test that instance again.

[Takeda]

1/ Did you get invited?
Yep

2/ Do you feel you were receiving beta emails correctly or were they going missing?
Yep

3/ Have you been a past LOTRO beta tester?
Nope, which is no surprise since I´m a migrated EU player

4/ Was downloading the client/server a smooth process.
Yep

5/ Do you feel the beta and beta forums, were well organized. run smoothly?
Yep

6/ Do you feel there was enough direction from Turbine in what and how to test?
During the testing events, I think so

7/ Did the beta tools work correctly for you? ie: E&G tavern, character copy, events ran, etc....
With the limitations that were already mentioned elsewhere, i.e. no character copy from the EU servers

8/ Do you have any suggestion for improvements?
Maybe insta-flagging for raids could be more automated. For example by putting (at certain times) an object into the beta-game that automatically flags you for the raid as soon as you use it. The way they did it for Drigoch was a little bit uhm chaotic

[CGDrakken]

I was going to post this in the beta forums today, but they seem to be gone.

1/ Did you get invited?

As in the case with all closed betas that are under the NDA, if you do not see the forums you have most likely been removed from the beta program. Also anyone that is in beta and has anwered for first question here will also be removed from the beta program.

[whheydt]

I was going to post this in the beta forums today, but they seem to be gone.

Think about this. You have been given a clue.

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

[Senseo]

This thread was about the Rise of Isengard beta, and as it was started on 09/22, probably after that beta ended. Which was why, I'm guessing, the OP couldn't see the forums anymore.

Folks replying to it now about the Riders of Rohan beta, however, are running a strong chance of hurting themselves.

[MoonwalkIntoMordor]

Forum necromancy and NDA breaking in one neat package. I like it.

Think about this. You have been given a clue.

I'm pretty sure he has been thinking about a lot of things, considering that was posted nearly a year ago.

[Ashloiren]

Um, this is an old thread, pertaining to ROI, not ROR...

[hex2323]

I didn't get an invite... kinda odd.

[Celestrata]

Holy thread necro, batman!

Closing this before anyone violates their NDAs. >.>