Once again we are running the next round of beta testing, this will still take place on Discord and we are taking applications for the next 2 days via email!
Please answer the following questions in your email application. As we typically receive a lot of applications, please keep your answers brief and to the point.
Your invite code! Please makes sure to include this in your email.
How long have you been playing the game?
What are your favourite game modes?
Do you speak any additional languages?
What device/s do you play on?
What do you think makes you a good fit for the beta?
We want to make sure there are some fresh testers with each update and some old testers may be invited to participate again.
I’ll review all applications sent and over the next couple of days contact those that have been chosen. Whether accepted or not we will get a reply to you! Looking forward to hearing from you.
Please be aware that at this time the beta is only open to Steam players.
Seriously asking, but why bother? I have heard that basically NOTHING beta testers tell you guys ever gets implemented, feedback is ignored, bug reports are ignored, etc.
Hopefully some newer Beta Testers can give feedback about their latest experience, but this one feels like an accurate summary, given the quality of the product that gets released rather consistently:
#IP2dedication #IP2dedication #IP2dedication
(100 Gems to skip)
I hope nobody will participate in those BETA testing anymore untill they apologize to every BETA tester who got ignored about their feedback. Don’t know if there excist even one who got a reply and whose suggestions were considered…
Some important points to think about is that by the time a build gets to beta, there is only scope for small changes like:
the placement of buttons being moved
the amount of a currency may be adjusted up or down
Your main role as a tester is to:
find out if what is stated in the beta patch notes is what you are experiencing Eg during the campaign beta: do I get 3 campaign stars for crafting 1 Red summoning stone?
Seeing if you can exploit the intended design Eg can I craft a blue summoning stone for the craft a red summoning stone task and still get the campaign stars? Or does crafting 10 summoning stones give me 30 stars
Testing out new mechanics with existing troops, teams, game modes and seeing if they work as expected Eg Can the devoted cast on Lycanthropy gems
Giving balanced actionable feedback - this is a tricky one because some feedback can be used Eg complete all battles in 3 pet rescues for a silver campaign task was removed from the final versions of campaigns because all the testers shown that solo players not in a guild or very new players couldn’t complete this within the week.
Things that haven’t been changed as you are probably aware are whole game modes getting removed or reworked, occurance rates and pricing. But these are generally things that are locked in by those above the beta dev team, we can put lots of data together and show them how it’s likely to be received or why it’s a bad idea but ultimately the game has targets to hit we just aren’t in control of.
The more testers there are with a passion for the game, who aren’t afraid to put in their free time then it can only help strengthen more outcomes like the campaign pet rescue beta back in 2019/2020 (im just using that as an example as it seems enough time has passed not for me to get a slap on the wrist for discussing)
Beta testing will take up a good chunk of your time (it’s run on a separate server so your main account will be cloned at the start so ensure you can still meet your own guild requirements aswell as running another account on beta) so if you like hunting bugs, doing a lot of math, spotting visual glitches and giving feedback then apply. If you are hoping that you can make a new feature easily achievable within a month for lots of the player base then you will probably be very disappointed with beta.
It’s a great opportunity and yes there is room for improvement by the team but the better the scope of testers, the more chance we have of making that change happen
@Hawx you know I respect yours and @gary_dils 's contributions to the game and the community since you devote so much of your time and energy into giving value-added content, guides, bug reports and fixes, etc. You’re a great resource to the Beta testing team and always make excellent feedback and do so in such a positive way. But I’ve got to respectfully say that my Beta experience was less than stellar over the course of a half dozen or so Betas.
It came down to the feeling that my freely given time as a tester wasn’t being respected. I don’t say that to mean that any of the community managing staff were unfriendly or bad to work with. Quite the contrary and it was nice to get to know and talk to them more in a different context from the forums. What I do mean by this is that as a volunteer tester, there would be times when we were catching game-breaking bugs for new delves, different game types, etc. that would be submitted and they’d still be put on hold due to lack of on-duty staffing over the weekend, or the fix would take too long before release. If the purpose of beta testing is purely for small stuff, there sure were a lot of large bugs we were finding consistently the day before live release.
One instance of spending close to a work week’s amount of hours fruitlessly trying to test drop rates for a new feature (looking at you Hoard Mimic) which may or may not have even been turned on in the testing server is what ultimately broke my desire to be a tester again. It’s one thing testing if there’s an ability to try the content, but I don’t appreciate getting sent on wild goose chases with my free time with the possibility the feature was never active.
I hear what you’re saying about a robust testing community being healthy for the game and finding more things to fix prior to release, but I also think people need to hear the reality that though the devs want people to manage their expectations for beta testing as being last minute tweaks to UI and minimal small bugs, that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Gigantic bugs and major implementation problems which by their own description should have been caught by internal paid testing are coming through constantly and only being caught at the 11th hour by beta testers, and if you find problems on a Thursday for weekend content then it’s not a priority to address since there is no one to address this over the weekend. Myself and other former testers begged the staff to please try and hire one or two people in other time zones with staggered schedules who have the authority to address these kinds of issues so that there is coverage to fix problems 24/7 since their service is available during those times. It just falls on deaf ears and the regular solution is to push out buggy stuff, send gems, and fix it next week or after the long holiday weekend.
I don’t regret my time as a Beta Tester as I got to know more people in the community, test some really fun stuff prior to release, and see behind the curtain a bit. However, people should know going into testing that you’ll be putting more of yourself in than you’re ultimately getting out of the process and you shouldn’t set your expectations too high of having much of an impact.
I 100% get it and I agree, ultimately I think IP2 does need more support because as you clearly put it we do find big issues and you can be banging your head against a wall finding 4 nysha tokens in testing before a Mimic pops up but I love this game, I love this community and I want to at least try to get the least possible buggy version of an update delivered to the community that I support.
I’m grateful for your honest feedback on my post and I hope it helps other possible testers in deciding if beta testing is right for them. If you have a lot of spare time and don’t mind how it’s spent then great but if your time is limited then it’s better devoted to your guild for sure.
I really appreciate this feedback @ctenn2ls. This sentiment is some of the reasons we are making changes to the BETA in the future, as we see it too.
Hope you know @OminousGMan and I always enjoyed having you in!
Of course! You all were great to work with and have the very hard job of connecting the wants and desires of the community with your coworkers who don’t directly engage with the public side and interfacing between the two. I always said I’d give you honest feedback, positive and negative, and keep to that. Thanks for taking the time to listen to my experience and I hope you all get some good fresh testers in.
