News Realms Remove Ads - Go Premium! Sign In or Register

Bluetracker

Tracks Blizzard employees across various accounts.

PTR Technical Test Now Live!

Hey all,

As some of you may have noticed, the PTR is currently live with the 2.3.0a patch, which is identical to our live servers. I wanted to take a sec to explain what's going on.

Later this evening, we'll be deploying a 2.3.0b Patch to the PTR. This patch does not have content changes, but a lot of behind the scenes stuff that has to do with our data and migration. It's sort of a bridge patch that leads to 2.4.0, and if you want to help us test this, all you need to do is log in.

After we give this a day or so to breathe, we are hoping to launch Patch 2.4.0 for testing later this week for you all to tackle head-on. At that time, we'll open up the PTR Feedback and Bug Report forums, post patch notes, and the whole regular shebang.

The reason we're not doing our regular run of communications for 2.3.0a/b is because, well, we don't really need people to give feedback or report bugs. We just need to look at data and check how things are going behind the scenes.

This part of testing is still important to us, though, so we'd appreciate if you'd pop in and poke around a bit. We can't wait to get 2.4.0 in your hands for testing!

  • Nevalistis
    Posted 8 years, 10 months ago (Source)

    How am I supposed to play all these games this week?!

    First, hit 88 miles per hour...

  • Nevalistis
    Posted 8 years, 10 months ago (Source)

    Any chance there will be more servers opened up for this PTR?

    I don't think anyone is looking forward to 10+ hour queues

    I know the queue times can be an inconvenience or frustrating at times, but the PTR is just not set up to handle the same kind of volume our live realms are. We save our best, most up-to-date equipment for providing an excellent live experience.

    The PTR isn't about providing the best, most flawless gaming experience. It's for testing. If there are queues, we are actually pretty grateful for them. It means there's tons of you out there willing to spend your free time trying out new things, reporting bugs, giving your feedback, or just helping us generate data.

    Even if someone who logs into the PTR never makes a single post or reddit thread, they're contributing to the testing experience. That's all we can ask!

  • Nevalistis
    Posted 8 years, 10 months ago (Source)

    This might sound dumb but why is everyone excited to play on the PTR? You don't get to keep anything right?

    Some folks just like to see new stuff. :)

  • Nevalistis
    Posted 8 years, 10 months ago (Source)

    I tried few Greater Rift 76 with WW Barbarian with no lags and that was amazing but it's because the server is empty.

    It would be perfect if lags can be fixed on 2.4 or atleast to be reduced or something, it's a huge problem when you die due the lags in a good rift it's frustrating.

    There should be some performance improvements in 2.4.0; however, they're the kind of back-end thing that often doesn't make patch notes as they're too technical to explain.

    My litmus test is usually the level of confusion on my face when an engineer is done talking to me.

  • Nevalistis
    Posted 8 years, 10 months ago (Source)

    Sometimes we purposefully avoid entering a conversation because once we touch a topic, it changes the flow and direction of the discussion. Sometimes that's a good thing, but other times it results in the loss of organic feedback that's super valuable.

    I think this is super interesting for a ton of reasons, but it also directly contradicts what the poster said about lack of communication leading to stagnancy. Is there a balance to strike? Sometimes "organic feedback" can use a little bit of grooming, so to speak. imo.

    There's definitely a balance, and it's a tricky one to hit! Certainly something we're always working towards.

  • Nevalistis
    Posted 8 years, 10 months ago (Source)

    Thanks Nev. Quick q: I know new content will wait for the official launch of 2.4 PTR, but will any of the bug fixes (e.g. area damage, lag optimization) be part of the technical test?

    This is strictly behind-the-scenes stuff. :) You shouldn't notice any significant changes in gameplay.

  • Nevalistis
    Posted 8 years, 10 months ago (Source)

    Please, we'd like to see some communication on the PTR forums this time around. We understand that you may not want to too heavily invested in every single topic, but lack of communication often causes players to post the same stuff again and again, leading to a rather sour environment tbh. Most of us participate on the PTR forums because we care deeply about the game.

    This isn't an excuse, but the reduction in posts comes from a couple of things I'd like folks to keep in mind through the PTR process:

    • Sometimes we purposefully avoid entering a conversation because once we touch a topic, it changes the flow and direction of the discussion. Sometimes that's a good thing, but other times it results in the loss of organic feedback that's super valuable.
    • Other times, we're working on things in advance like blogs, videos, or patch note updates that are time consuming, but are effectively wide-reaching forms of communication. Blue posts are somewhat visible, but blog posts and videos reach a lot more people. In short, it's a balance between time management and communication effectiveness.
    • Lastly, we spend a lot of time reading and compiling reports. It's easily the majority of my time spent during every PTR. The more time we spend replying to feedback, the less feedback we get to look through. It's a tricky balance.

    Certainly, if there are places where we can help guide your feedback and provide clarification, those are the areas in which we'll focus on making posts. We have to pick and choose carefully, because there's a lot more of you than us! This is why we continue efforts like the Focused Feedback threads and try to hone in on the places that need the most clarification.

  • Nevalistis
    Posted 8 years, 10 months ago (Source)

    Just to be clear is it most helpful to copy characters over right now and hop in game to start dinging off mass amounts of achievements or is it best to wait for this 2.3.0b?

    I actually logged in and copied over an hour ago, but I'll ask for other people.

    Either, actually. Having some folks hop into game would definitely be good, but I believe both options will give us different kinds of useful data.

Tweet