testers wanted for beta site!

[lokisgal]

Id like to be a beta tester please!

[t-o-m]

Any update on this?

[thyhammer]

I would be interesed in tring this out

[Silly Knig-it]

I would like to be a beta tester.

[BGG:GaiusJC]

I would like to beta test.

[elfish_lad]

Don't hold your breath. Or? Do. But then let it go. Let it go...

~walks away singing from "Frozen"~

[pindary]

I can try out some maps when you need some help

[Nucker]

in please

[Donald Fung]

in please

[ganguscalm]

ok ! lets do this !

[Sey69]

Are points at risk or for gain when we do this?

No.

Then count me in .

count me as well just let me know what im spose to do and ill help out

+1

[IcePack]

I'm not sure there's any active beta going atm but there should be some in the future

[Pochuco]

I'm in.

[Beast Of Burson]

I'm in.

[iancanton]

thanks for ur interest. however, there is currently no ongoing beta testing. i shall re-open this thread when the situation changes in future.

ian.

[Nucker]

Regards the Beta site and it’s testers.

First, what is the current purpose of the Beta site?

Next, I see that the players on it seem to be opening regular games as per the main site.
This means that
A) No testing is being done. Even the games being played have no discussion as to their improvement.
B) Games take forever to fill up.

I am suggesting that we delete all open games and only admins gets to set up games that need testing.
What is being tested should also be made clear.

Looking at the current players awaiting games in Join Games tells me there are enough players on the Beta to make meaningful headway in fixing maps that need fixing and to test new ones that are awaiting testing to be added to the main site.

Analysis should be done during the game in chat and post game via PM/forum.

Thank you

[iancanton]

First, what is the current purpose of the Beta site?

to test changes before they are implemented on the live site.

Next, I see that the players on it seem to be opening regular games as per the main site.
This means that
A) No testing is being done. Even the games being played have no discussion as to their improvement.
B) Games take forever to fill up.

so far, there have been 123 games with game activity either last month or this month. of these, there were only 4 non-bot games on a non-beta map, so it's extremely doubtful that the 4 games in question significantly lengthened the average time for a game to start.

I am suggesting that we delete all open games and only admins gets to set up games that need testing.

that will probably serve only to reduce activity on the beta site.

What is being tested should also be made clear.

more use can certainly be made of the beta testers forum to do this.

Looking at the current players awaiting games in Join Games tells me there are enough players on the Beta to make meaningful headway in fixing maps that need fixing and to test new ones that are awaiting testing to be added to the main site.

more beta testers will be welcome.

Analysis should be done during the game in chat and post game via PM/forum.

analysis post-game is best done in the relevant map thread in the foundry. an exception is for technical issues, such as a map failing to display properly or players unable to finish their turns, in which case the beta testers forum is the correct place.

ian.

[Nucker]

Hello Ian,

I do prefer a private format to address issues but as you prefer this mode I am going with it.

As the outdated forum (being very old formats) makes copying or even using the quote method exceptionally hard from modern platforms like cell phones and iPads I am responding to your remarks in an even older fashioned way.
I am not going to retype them so please reference your reply’s.

Regards the games played
It is hard for me to check this as I have to sift through hundreds of games to find the relevant ones.
But I do take your word for it.

However of the 12 active games
5 scenario games, 3 human and 2 bot. I feel scenario games can be included in meaningful testing.
In fact scenarios can be used to fix many of the drop issues for competitive players.
5 regular bot games, mainly Big Wham. I assume he is testing his bots.
2 actually testing a beta map, being Holy Wars 1250.

Of the 361 waiting games
Not one to test a beta map.
In fact half are empty games.
Of the half that are populated, half have only 1 player
Several random maps, not sure what they are testing....

The beta testers themselves
I have sent messages to 40 players who appear on the waiting games from the most recent creations.
I am going to go out there and guess that the beta site has no more than 100 to 120 players in total.
This would be a great number to do very efficient testing, however of the 40 I sent messages to only 7 responded and actually joined a game.
This means that we probably have about 20 odd active testers.
Judging by the slow rate of play in the games I have been in, even these players don’t frequent the site regularly. This also impacts on the quality of testing a map.

The “beta” maps
I need to qualify the concept of beta first.
A map that is available on the main site, even if labeled beta should not appear on the beta site unless it has particular issues that need to be tested.
Beta maps on the beta site should be;
Whodunnit?
Metro Parisian
Holy Wars 1250
Scenario maps

The rest should not be available at all for players on the beta site.
Indeed the maps for testing should only be put up by admin and players can join.

This will lead to more activity not less as the active players will fill up the available games more quickly. They may even frequent the site more regularly with more structured activity.

Reason for testing and player analysis
What is being tested should be made clear either in the description or in the chat at the start of the game.
Observations made live are probably more valuable than later reflective ones, which are also valuable.
A thread in the forum for the relevant map and its observations can be updated with the chat feed by the game tester and by players who wish to add further comments.

Currently there are no threads for
Whodunnit?
Metro Parisian.
Or for the multitude of other maps played. Not that these need any, but players are opening these games.

Beta forum
Is there a need for this? If not can the whole thing be scraped?
It creates confusion.

Main forum
I find the forum a difficult place to navigate.
The recent posts are pages away and the relevance is lost by a lot of noise.
On the whole players go to a lot of trouble to start them with some great explanations, but after that is goes pear shaped with irrelevant comments.
This is probably hard to fix but it does cause issues with the human attention span.

In summary
I am proposing

A) Scrapping the beta forum entirely to avoid confusion. A use could be found later maybe... Possibly the site will load faster with less encumbering it. Cut away all the superfluous stuff.

B) Scrapping all maps on the beta except;
New maps not on main site
Maps from the main site that need further testing
Scenario maps. This can facilitate better options for existing maps.

C) Rewarding the beta testers (after removing non active and players not participating in testing). This will also then become more of an exchange which can be measured.

I am trying hard to keep CC relevant. A lot of players leave due to;
A bad dice randomizer (this really needs fixing)
Outdated tech format.
Indifferent attitude from the CC establishment

Thank you

[degaston]

Indifferent attitude from the CC establishment

As long as that's true, nothing else is ever going to change.

[Nucker]

Degaston you are a very special human.

You read all the way to the bottom.
That makes you one of a very small percentage.
And you read the forum
Small percentage as well.

But what makes you exta special is that you picked up on such a salient point.
10 years has taught me the wisdom of your observation.
But they made the fable about whipping dead horses about me.
I have had dead horses get up and say "for you"

Obviously I am willing to put in a good amount of time just writing the stuff I have in these forums, let alone the time spent experimenting with and all the background work they refer to.

This is because Risk is my hobby. I enjoy the multi-player game at this level. Even if I am just average at it.
However I feel it can be made much more enjoyable and actually challenging by tweeking a few parameters (as options).

Unfortunately other sites miss the same things CC does.

CC has a long history, good game dynamics and a great player base.
So I have no choice. I am not a developer, just an ideas man (with practiced experience in the old normal, across a board) so I can't implement the changes myself
I need help guys.

This is the New Normal.
We are struggling to be relevant with an outdated site.
We need to update. Not nessecarily go full Monty modern but at least less cumbersome.

Thank you

[degaston]

Degaston you are a very special human.

You read all the way to the bottom.
That makes you one of a very small percentage.
And you read the forum
Small percentage as well.

But what makes you exta special is that you picked up on such a salient point.
10 years has taught me the wisdom of your observation.
But they made the fable about whipping dead horses about me.
I have had dead horses get up and say "for you"

Obviously I am willing to put in a good amount of time just writing the stuff I have in these forums, let alone the time spent experimenting with and all the background work they refer to.

This is because Risk is my hobby. I enjoy the multi-player game at this level. Even if I am just average at it.
However I feel it can be made much more enjoyable and actually challenging by tweeking a few parameters (as options).

Unfortunately other sites miss the same things CC does.

CC has a long history, good game dynamics and a great player base.
So I have no choice. I am not a developer, just an ideas man (with practiced experience in the old normal, across a board) so I can't implement the changes myself
I need help guys.

This is the New Normal.
We are struggling to be relevant with an outdated site.
We need to update. Not nessecarily go full Monty modern but at least less cumbersome.

Thank you

I have spent a fair amount of time in the past advocating for things like a better dice algorithm (I think I was instrumental in getting them to change it, but to my knowledge, they really haven't "fixed" it.), and improved game, map, and pairing features, among other things. It's just my opinion, but I think it was new features and maps that brought people back to the site, and that the site started declining when the foundry died and development of the site stopped.

I was developing the Whodunnit? map, but thought that it couldn't be what I wanted without a minor modification to map capability (Specifically, allowing killer neutrals to be part of an objective). There used to be some lively discussion about improvements to the site, and sometimes they were actually implemented, but I can't recall the last time that happened.

I still play here, mostly because I I enjoy team games with friends, but I've given up trying to get anything to change. Good luck if you want to continue trying, but I think the Beta site is the least of the problems around here, and not really that relevant considering it's been almost 4 months since anyone posted in the foundry map topics.

[Vlasov]

Reading and thinking...

[Nucker]

Scenarios.

When I join a scenario on the Beta (and probably the Main site) I see the number of qued players.
However I also see several versions of the exact same scenario?
They also show the same number of qued players.

Does this mean they are copies that that I have only joined 1 game?

[iancanton]

Of the 361 waiting games
Not one to test a beta map.
In fact half are empty games.
Of the half that are populated, half have only 1 player
Several random maps, not sure what they are testing....

nearly all of the waiting games were copied from the live site at a date in the past and were not created by beta testers.

The beta testers themselves
I have sent messages to 40 players who appear on the waiting games from the most recent creations.
I am going to go out there and guess that the beta site has no more than 100 to 120 players in total.
This would be a great number to do very efficient testing, however of the 40 I sent messages to only 7 responded and actually joined a game.
This means that we probably have about 20 odd active testers.
Judging by the slow rate of play in the games I have been in, even these players don’t frequent the site regularly. This also impacts on the quality of testing a map.

i suspect that most of the players to whom u sent messages are not beta testers, but simply those players who happened to have a waiting game at the time the live games were copied to the beta site.

A map that is available on the main site, even if labeled beta should not appear on the beta site unless it has particular issues that need to be tested.
Beta maps on the beta site should be;
Whodunnit?
Metro Parisian
Holy Wars 1250
Scenario maps

The rest should not be available at all for players on the beta site.
Indeed the maps for testing should only be put up by admin and players can join.

This will lead to more activity not less as the active players will fill up the available games more quickly. They may even frequent the site more regularly with more structured activity.

the majority of items being tested on the beta site is unrelated to new maps, for example changes to the game logs or the introduction of new medals need to be tested on maps that are known to work properly.

Reason for testing and player analysis
What is being tested should be made clear either in the description or in the chat at the start of the game.
Observations made live are probably more valuable than later reflective ones, which are also valuable.
A thread in the forum for the relevant map and its observations can be updated with the chat feed by the game tester and by players who wish to add further comments.

agreed.

Currently there are no threads for
Whodunnit?
Metro Parisian.

there are.

Or for the multitude of other maps played. Not that these need any, but players are opening these games.

nearly all of the waiting games were copied from the live site at a date in the past and were not created by beta testers.

Beta forum
Is there a need for this? If not can the whole thing be scraped?
It creates confusion.

it was copied from the live site at a date in the past. i presume it's needed to test proposed changes for unintended side-effects on the forum.

Main forum
I find the forum a difficult place to navigate.
The recent posts are pages away and the relevance is lost by a lot of noise.
On the whole players go to a lot of trouble to start them with some great explanations, but after that is goes pear shaped with irrelevant comments.
This is probably hard to fix but it does cause issues with the human attention span.

we try to avoid heavy-handed moderation where possible.

In summary
I am proposing

A) Scrapping the beta forum entirely to avoid confusion. A use could be found later maybe... Possibly the site will load faster with less encumbering it. Cut away all the superfluous stuff.

B) Scrapping all maps on the beta except;
New maps not on main site
Maps from the main site that need further testing
Scenario maps. This can facilitate better options for existing maps.

C) Rewarding the beta testers (after removing non active and players not participating in testing). This will also then become more of an exchange which can be measured.

I am trying hard to keep CC relevant. A lot of players leave due to;
A bad dice randomizer (this really needs fixing)
Outdated tech format.
Indifferent attitude from the CC establishment

Thank you

finding a way to reward the beta testers is feasible. the foundry has no power over other areas.

Scenarios.

When I join a scenario on the Beta (and probably the Main site) I see the number of qued players.
However I also see several versions of the exact same scenario?
They also show the same number of qued players.

Does this mean they are copies that that I have only joined 1 game?

if u have 5 games in ur Requests tab, then u've joined 5 games. if u leave them open, then this will help to start more games when other players join.

ian.