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Why has the PTB just been relegated to being nothing but advirtisement.
The PTB has served basically zero purpose except for advertisement for years now and I just dont get why. Important changes rarely happen between the PTB and the live release and when they do its usually because they were already planned and just werent ready.
I ge that development on this game takes time(too much for what bhvr delivers in all honestly)but then why not just do the ptb like a week or 2 before to give people a taste of the killer then drop it the next week? Its not even useful for bugs since there have been many, many cases of bugs in the PTB making it to live.
How about isnstead of hosting a useless PTB you actually get feedback from say your fog whisperers, or some other people not in house, on chapters while they are still in development. So you can get feedback from people that actually play it a lot, and not with the same people all the time (ive seen some of your devs play, they arent very good). I know the idea may seem ridiculous especially with how many chapters have been leaked and/or datamined months in advance but something needs to change.
Im probably being overly harsh but I just dont have the patience for decoram and dont feel like this upcoming chapter respects its playerbase's time or money. Idk maybe im just too biased at this point and cant see the good in bhvr anymore.
Comments
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I am not as headstrong as you with this feeling, but I have the feeling none the less. My wife and I won't be buying this chapter. We've always bought the chapters just because, but now its like we've been served cold poop and expected to eat it like everything else. If this works, they'll likely do it again.
If this happens next chapter, and it isnt stunning, we've already decided to let Dbd be the happy memory it can still be. If we quit.
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This seems to be an issue with a lot of games tbh. Test servers happen very close to launch where they can’t really put the feedback into the live game
But they have used it well before. For example Ghostface was absolute dumpster tier on ptb but got buffed pretty significantly
I also have a feeling merchant will be getting buffs since her reception has been unanimously that she’s too weak
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Flip side is that Knight got only a nerf to, like, one add-on.
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His reception wasn’t as bad in terms of strength. P,is he was a more unique concept so BHVR probably wanted to play it safe
Afterwhich near his archive he was bufffed by a pretty decent amount
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that what happens when the lead game designer not longer plays his "own" game and has no plan how to proceed.
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Yeah, he got a buff that at least gave him something else to do, but this came after making him control like crap as a fix for another bug, so it's been largely neutral. Plus the other bug (haste from long paths doesn't stack with light greaves, so those're pretty meaningless).
Wesker just got a hitbox tweak, I wasn't around for anything related to Dredge, and Sadako... I don't actually think they changed anything. The last year hasn't exactly shown an inclination to make much change from the PTB versions.
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It’s true that not much has changed on these PTB’s but to be honest not much really had to. Wesker was a simp,e fix and he’s great now, Dredge is pretty good and honestly fine and sadako is carried by her condemned strategy so her kill rate looks fine to them
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We'll see, I had some suspicion of this after overzealous was listed as part of the mass perk change before roots of dread was even out. But we know what changes are supposed to be coming so if there's nothing besides what we've seen we'll more or less have confirmation the ptb is only for marketing purposes.
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They've said in the past that the PTB is a valuable tool for collecting feedback. Just because you don't see the changes immediately from PTB to live doesn't mean that the feedback isn't taken into consideration. A lot of the changes come later down the line.
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PTB's are definitely advertisements and always have been.
However, I'd bet that most of the changes we see in the Mid-Chapter are influenced by PTB feedback.
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Build certification for console doesn't happen overnight. Takes anywhere from weeks to a month.
There is very little time between when the PTB ends and when the build is sent out for certification. Small changes might make it in before then, but only major game-braking things will set it back.
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The info would be fairly useless though. They usually already have changes ready that were planned before the ptb went live. So the feedback is already outdated. Take skull merchant, her changes were already leaked and apparently that build was finished 2 days into the ptb.
Also frankly they can say whatever they want they've made it pretty clear teams don't talk to each other enough and sometimes they just cover for other teams ######### ups
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I doubt it. They usually make some changes but they're changes that they already planned and just were ready for the ptb and at that point the ptb feedback is outdated and not very useful.
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I'm aware, that's why I suggested they get feedback from people outside the company but trustworthy and actually knows the game really well to come in during the development phase.
I'm fine with the PTB being used to get some hype for the chapter but then there's no reason for it to be a full month out. By the time it hits live a lot of the hype will have died down already.
My issue is the facade they put up that they actually care about ptb feedback.
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But Sadako's condemned play wasn't developed when the PTB came out. What we got was a lot closer to the intended play, and the overall complaints that developed later already started to show up.
People were just way dumber with the tapes, as per usual with every new thing.
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Which is why they were cautious when buffing her since she basically has tombstone base kit if it’s too strong. That’s very hard to balance especially in the 3 week ptb period
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The PTB is used to detect issues and start work on them hotfix 1 patch.
(too much for what bhvr delivers in all honestly)
You are welcome to start your own Gaming Company if you think you can do better.
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She still needs buffs and her condemn playstyle can be shot into the sun. I'd genuinely rather look a tthe menu then play against condemn sadako
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Ah yes what a wonderful excuse for a company you dont work for. You are welcome to have low standards but I expect a little more from a several hundred employee company.
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What do you expect then?
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Expecting to rework the killer into a chase one and make her face melted, half robotic, and a tragic backstory or the doctor clone where she started experiment on herself to make herself into a disgusting robot.
Meanwhile release a shirtless male model survivor or killer into game, but thats fine.
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This argument is so flawed, you cannot criticize anything if you do not do it? Do If I go to a restaurant and the food is awfull I cannot say its awfull because im not a chef? What kind of logic is that?
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More modes, better map balancing, a content model that's not solely based on you enjoying a new killer and perks, hell maybe not having a constant influx of bugs with every update.
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You're not wrong, the PTB is definitely mostly for advertising these days, that and making sure that if something is completely broken they can patch it either before release or in a hotfix. That said, you can't say they never make serious changes after PTB feedback either. Look at Twins, they launched on PTB with two complete hard counters to their power. It's clear from how slowly and sloppily they addressed those problems that they were quickly responding to PTB feedback (which makes it kind of incredible no one noticed said problems before then, but that's another topic). And granted, Twins are still a mess to this day, but they were definitely changed directly based on PTB experience.
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What else do you expect from developers who work 10 hours per week?
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There seems to be a sentiment I've noticed where some folks expect a PTB to be like, wholly optional stuff? As in, BHVR should be willing and able to fundamentally change things between PTB and live, based on community feedback. I'm not sure how that could even work on a purely practical level, let alone it being a desirable outcome.
This game's killers (and most other game's new content for that matter) aren't designed by committee, they're not getting feedback on whether a power or lore concept is a good idea. They're getting feedback for bugs, balance issues, and other such gamefeel related things. That's why the buffs from PTB to live are usually just small number buffs, that's what the PTB is for.
The stuff on the PTB is like, mostly finished. No game studio in their right mind would put this much time and effort into something they're willing to scrap and change on a fundamental level, that'd be an insane misuse of resources.
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Exactly, and the issue is sometimes that BHVR listen too much.
If they would redesign every killer based on feedback, the game would shut down.
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The main purpose is to find bugs. Yes they use it to gage how the community feels about the additions but that was always secondary.
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That's what most games' PTBs are, it's mainly to hype up the patch and make sure the game doesn't completely break down, that's it.
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