DST betas and characters

[ShadowDuelist]

I've noticed that every time there is a refresh, there usually are major concerns from the community about some balance aspects that need fixing, which is usually made a few days later in a patch.

In that sense, and to allow everyone get the final version of the character on the main branch at the same time, shouldn't refreshes be released, and tweaked/patched according to the community feedback in beta first? 

Optional: This could also apply to the new characters, like the beta lets anyone play for a few days to tweak and correct the main issues of the character, but when released on main branch, you still have to purchase it/spool craft it.

[Well-met]

Unveiling a new character in the beta would lose out alot of appeal and maybe even sales. You can't really make people pay for a beta either. 

It's not good marketing move. But yes there seems to be a pattern where everybody dislikes the first day release and then Klei pumps out a massive buff and call it a day.

EDIT: nevermind i just realized you meant refreshes

[me real life]

Yeah, I don't think it's worth losing the burst of hype from everyone getting ahold of a refresh at once. As much as I love RoT content being put through a beta first, there's a noticeable loss of hype imo between people who play all through the beta and people who only start playing once it's officially out, to the point where the main excitement I see people express for the official release of new content is just for the short that comes along with it.

[Mike23Ua]

Anyone here play For Honor or SMITE When a new character releases there is a demonstration mode.. a small circular arena that lets you test out that characters abilities and stuff outside of the main game prior to buying.

DST could use a Demonstration Mode for characters like Wortox, Wurt, Wormwood.. for people playing on Xbox they have to either watch videos of someone playing them, witness someone join the game playing them, or do like I do and just say screw it im buying them because I want to unlock all characters regardless of if I’ll ever play as them.

Confession- I don’t buy characters as much, the things I DO Like to buy are a characters unique belongings set whenever someone gets a Refresh, I’ve bought Woodie, Willow & Wendy’s..

I am saddened that Warly & Winona did not get their own belonging sets.. otherwise I would’ve bought those too.

And Klei already knows When/If Walani comes... 6 different Surfboard design skins like Abigail now has skins.. And I’m Buying!

[ArubaroBeefalo]

a close beta to try characters could be useful to prevent stuff like woodie or wendy (or wortox)

[GenomeSquirrel]

No, reduced scope is reduced feedback.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

3 minutes ago, GenomeSquirrel said:

No, reduced scope is reduced feedback.

they can still making changes after the release

[Harrowick]

2 hours ago, Mike23Ua said:

I am saddened that Warly & Winona did not get their own belonging sets.. otherwise I would’ve bought those too.

I always thought the Voxola Warehouse chest was Winona's belonging set, since it's a part of the "Next of KIn" Collection. (Unless you meant we have no skins for Winona's structures. )

 

(I haven't played For Honor in months! I sorta lost interest when they announced throwback events lol)

[GenomeSquirrel]

34 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

they can still making changes after the release

I don’t see the value in waiting either.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

1 minute ago, GenomeSquirrel said:

I don’t see the value in waiting either.

the value of keeping a good image for the company and dont fall in jokes like other companies for unbalancing release, also do you prefer the chaos with wendy and how useless was woodies forms than a good global release?

[Mike23Ua]

10 minutes ago, Lumberlocke said:

I always thought the Voxola Warehouse chest was Winona's belonging set, since it's a part of the "Next of KIn" Collection. (Unless you meant we have no skins for Winona's structures. )

 

(I haven't played For Honor in months! I sorta lost interest when they announced throwback events lol)

I meant Winona’s kit stuff, like the Duct Tape, her Catapults, Generators or Spotlight- I don’t see a profile loading frame as being a personal belonging item.. 

unlike Wendy’s Abigail Flowers or Willows Lighter+Ashley.

Even Woodies Canadian Hockey stuff felt more Appropriate, but yeah I guess that Technically counts as Winona’s Belongings.  

[Sinister_Fang]

36 minutes ago, GenomeSquirrel said:

No, reduced scope is reduced feedback.

It might provide less feedback as a whole, but when something is in a beta it's labeled as a work in progress. And people are more likely to actually provide feedback when they know it's still being worked on. So you might have less feedback overall, but you'll have a higher percentage of people actually providing it. Not to mention that a beta also provides a grace period for fixing any bugs or exploits the developers might have missed.

Besides, it would be released to the public anyway. So they'd get the full feedback once it's live.

[GenomeSquirrel]

20 minutes ago, Sinister_Fang said:

So you might have less feedback overall, but you'll have a higher percentage of people actually providing it.

That’s a VERY deceptive way to use statistics, having 1 out of 3 people providing feedback is not better than having 5 out of 20 because the percentage is bigger. It’s probably qualitatively worse because the smaller pool.

[ArubaroBeefalo]

9 minutes ago, GenomeSquirrel said:

That’s a VERY deceptive way to use statistics, having 1 out of 3 people providing feedback is not better than having 5 out of 20 because the percentage is bigger. It’s probably qualitatively worse because the smaller pool.

but the are not exclusive one method, you can do a 1st test and then release it

[GenomeSquirrel]

14 minutes ago, ArubaroBeefalo said:

but the are not exclusive one method, you can do a 1st test and then release it

But that puts disproportionate value on the first test.

[Yuuko]

Instead of releasing a broad beta branch Klei could have their official servers run the new version of a character for like 2 weeks to gauge how well its working.  They should be able to include it in their servers kinda like a mod character.  This would be a good cross between the traditional beta branch vs closed beta.  It also might make someone like me play on pub servers sometimes lol

I don't think it would reduce the impact of the character launch to allow beta access.  People's main games aren't played in beta branch.

[Sinister_Fang]

2 hours ago, GenomeSquirrel said:

That’s a VERY deceptive way to use statistics, having 1 out of 3 people providing feedback is not better than having 5 out of 20 because the percentage is bigger. It’s probably qualitatively worse because the smaller pool.

Looking back at it, yeah, that was kinda a bad argument. The point I was trying to make it that too much feedback all at once can be overwhelming. A beta lets them open the floodgates slower and make the necessary changes before a full release. I honestly don't think a "reduced scope and reduced feedback" is much of an issue when that's kinda the point of having beta branches.