[Testing/Prizes] Playtest balance changes, win pizza!

Update: We are no longer awarding pizza for test server performance. If you want to earn pizza for helping us test balance changes, see the playtest report bounty thread.



Hi everyone! Based on suggestions from the community, Blue Manchu will be handing out pizza prizes to players who contribute significant playtest data on the upcoming balance changes. Here's how it'll work.

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Rules

First of all, your rating on the test server should now be 1000. New test server accounts should have a rating of 1000. Create a ranked party using the "everyitem" console cheat to get access to every possible combination of items, and then play ranked games against players (or even against the AI). Your rating will change based on your performance.

Every day until the end of this event*, at 9 a.m. PDT / 12 p.m. EDT / 4 p.m. UTC, we will check the test server's standings.

• The player with the highest rating will receive 50 pizza on the live server.
• The player with the most games won in the previous 24 hours will receive 20 pizza on the live server.

These prizes might not be distributed immediately, but we'll check names and you'll receive your rewards.

*We're not yet sure when this event will end. I'll keep you all updated in this thread about pauses in our schedule. And yes, I'm aware that the first reward period is shorter than 24 hours. Happy Birthday to people who live on the opposite side of the planet from me!

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Don't worry about playing builds you think are ridiculously broken. We need that data. If you hit highest rating on the test server by 'abusing' something, that's great! We'll reward you!

We are taking a day-by-day approach to this 'competition' because we want to be able to pause or resume it on a day-by-day basis. We'll be rolling out changes over the course of this event. The goal isn't to hold a real tournament testing skill or know-how: it's to generate as many playtest games as possible while encouraging people to try to win. We want to put stress on all the changes we've made to items and cards, and we appreciate any help we can get.

We're aware that there are potential issues with some of the changes, but we don't want to delay this event. The basic approach we want to take is to get you guys testing, collect data, make changes, keep the testing going, etc.. Changes may get pushed in the middle of a reward period, and may affect your chances of winning prize in that period if you can't adapt.

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If you have any question, feel free to ask them below. I'll be posting the winning names every day in this thread; in case your test server account and live server accounts have different names, please speak up (either in this thread or by PM) so that we can get you your pizza.

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Preemptive FAQ

Q: Where is the test server?
A: http://test.cardhunter.com

Q: How do I use the test server, cheats, etc.?
A: http://forums.cardhunter.com/threads/how-to-use-the-test-server.5518/

 

Interesting, but until the Harness stacking, Cause Fumble / Defender's Block, Flash Flood, and Gusts of War changes go through it will probably be extremely boring and long with super stall builds.

Also, I question counting AI wins... if someone just makes a team that auto wins against the AI and plays when no one else is on they can farm a ton of Elo. I'd also suggest resetting everyone's Elo at the time of counting so someone who gets far ahead early doesn't have a huge advantage.

 

Possibly! We probably won't leave it alone too long if that ends up being the case. Don't worry—we're listening!

I questioned it, too, but there are limits to how much Elo you can grind off the AIs (it does slow down eventually) and we'll still be getting card data. The process is subject to change but we are sticking to what's outlined above for the moment.

Thanks for all your input as always!

 

There are limits to how much you can grind from the AI, but the people who get to play the AI first will have a larger advantage due to getting more Elo at first. Not sure how big of a deal it will be though. Still would suggest resetting everyone's Elo each day so someone who plays a ton one day isn't guaranteed to be in the lead for a long time.

 

Hope someone copied the top 20 or so elo's to make sure they are people who are playing (make sure the elo number has changed since the beginning of this). There may be some "top" players that haven't played in a while.

My test account name is Scarponi01 - just in case there was confusion .

 

A) Input is good, but all-in-all I expect Flax to handle this fairly.
B) I don't expect to win pizza because I'll be spending a lot of time on the SP side. 'Cuz that's my thing.

 

Well I can already guarantee I won't be the player with the highest ranked Elo and that I certainly won't have the most wins for the day. Even if all I did was spend my free time playing the test server :/

I've sorta come to terms with my position floating somewhere between the 1100-1300s and my interest in fighting other people burning out during an epic losing streak or the 5th game where I draw like one attack card and the rest movements across all my characters (if not just solid movement) ~.~

Still guess I will probably try to check it out, someone said you needed a separate account for the test server? or can you just use your normal login info?

 

Separate account. Check this.

 

You have to create a new account, consider the two servers as two different games.

 

Well, I already gave my feedback. The rest of y'all are welcome to reap the fruits if you have enough patience. ^_^

 

Cool, thank you.
Went ahead and added it to my bookmarks in case I need to reference it again

 

Hey, really nice freebie!
How do you will know what is the live server account based on the test server account?

 

I'd guess they would probably go by email address?

Aaaannnd I just realized I used a different Email to register for the test server
So hopefully not my first theory lol

 

@neoncat: We super appreciate it and are working on it. I'm sure there'll be opportunity for you to do more testing; as I said, we'll be trying to iterate some changes.

 

"Day 0" winners:
Rank: SquidProQuo (Squidy) - 50p
Wins: Finial (Finial) - 20p

 

Well, my accounts are:
Test server: RainbowSorcerer
Live server: WhiteSorcerer

 

You need to advertise this more on the live server, great idea anyway

 

MP lobby needs a News section!

 

It's on the Loot Fairy Tracker and the Blue Manchu Twitter & Facebook... I'll dump the announcement in live server lobby as frequently as I can but that's not very reliable. Maybe you guys can help out by spreading the word a little

 

Huh. My connection is terrible for the next four days. It's too bad, I would have like to try some Firestorm decks.