Test Days

red_flame586

L420: High Member
Apr 19, 2009
437
122
I don't know if this is in the right place or not. But I have a problem with testing days. You see I live in Australia, so by the time the thread opens, It's way to late for me to add any of my maps. So instead, I wake up early the next morning to put my map up on the thread... And submissions are closed. It's either that, or getting my response in and then being told that I have missed out. That's happened to me, and I'm sure lots of other people for the past 3 weeks.

Long story short I think that testing days should have more slots for testing, or have some kind of system allowing people who just missed out last time to have first choice next time.

It would also be good if A Boojum Snark could spread some light on how the system works. I don't know about everyone else, but it's kind of confusing for me.
 

Nineaxis

Quack Doctor
aa
May 19, 2008
1,767
2,820
I'm not sure what really can be done. I don't think submissions fill up that quickly, yeah, they usually fill up by the end of the day, but it's kind of a week-by-week day-by-day thing. Adding more slots for testing just results in the last maps being played 3 vs 3 because the server regulars will leave from fatigue and people don't just play bad alphas for the fun of it.

The system isn't that confusing. There are 4 gamedays, 2 on the US server, 2 on the EU. Submission thread opens two days before the gameday. There's usually 6-7 maps each gameday, first come first serve, rearranged based on time preferences.
 

A Boojum Snark

Toraipoddodezain Mazahabado
aa
Nov 2, 2007
4,775
7,669
Pretty much what Nine said. I don't have a lot of options here, since if I were to adjust the time I open the thread to be better for Australia then it would probably be bad for the eastern Europe people.

I can try to explain anything more if you need, though.
I'm always open to suggestions as well.
 

Waif

L7: Fancy Member
Mar 22, 2009
412
125
I don't know if this is in the right place or not. But I have a problem with testing days. You see I live in Australia, so by the time the thread opens, It's way to late for me to add any of my maps. So instead, I wake up early the next morning to put my map up on the thread... And submissions are closed. It's either that, or getting my response in and then being told that I have missed out. That's happened to me, and I'm sure lots of other people for the past 3 weeks.

Long story short I think that testing days should have more slots for testing, or have some kind of system allowing people who just missed out last time to have first choice next time.

It would also be good if A Boojum Snark could spread some light on how the system works. I don't know about everyone else, but it's kind of confusing for me.

I'm from Aus to, and I find that Sunday gamedays generally fill up slower- heck last week it didn't even fill up totally, so you have the most chance of getting in them. Unfortunately as gamedays start at like 2am here, Sunday ones are a bit hard to make :p so its best to just get Source TV.
 

pitto

L3: Member
Feb 17, 2009
109
73
Yeah I'm from Aus too, but I usually submit my map when I get home from work after midnight (it usually opens around that from what I have experienced)

And yes game days are late for us, just remember to request that your map is one of the first and make an effort to stay up, and have not much sleep for that one night a week and it should be worth it.

I think it is much more useful to be there, even if your ping is like >200
 

BrokenTripod

L5: Dapper Member
May 11, 2009
248
65
Could we maybe stagger the times?

I don't know what the distribution of the active playtesters are, but it might be helpful to stagger some of the playtesting times/thread opening times to better adjust for Eastern Europe and Australia?

Last week and maybe the one before that, I was pretty good at waking up for gamedays, but today I literally missed it by 4-5 hours, haha.

It might be helpful to have certain gamedays start at different times, based on where the server is located? For example the US server gameday could be later to get more people in the West Coast (Who would have better ping and be less likely to join Engineer) to get into the first few maps, while the EU server would be adjusted so that less US players join?

Perhaps it would be good to figure out how much of the (ACTIVE) community is in EU/US?

EDIT: Perhaps we could have the US servers on one day be the times we have now and on another day be shifted? Same for the EU servers?
 

Nineaxis

Quack Doctor
aa
May 19, 2008
1,767
2,820
Times used to be shifted and it just caused unnecessary confusion.
 

Caliostro

L6: Sharp Member
Jul 6, 2009
261
110
I'm not sure what really can be done. I don't think submissions fill up that quickly,


Really? I practically camped out Friday's thread. Went out for around 2 hours, it opened while I was gone, when I came back I got the LAST slot in.

It doesn't ALWAYS fill up this fast though, I'm aware. And that said, I agree with the rest you said.


I have a suggestion regarding this, simple one too: Give precedence to people who haven't had their maps tested that week.

This is one thing that bugs me about the current system. Currently we can end up playing 4 different versions of the same map in the same week... Sometimes barely anything changed from one version to the other... Sometimes it changed, but was rushed out to meet the deadline... Not even mentioning people skirting the "deadline" rule by adding 2 lampposts, giving it a different number, then "updating" it meanwhile (this is just an example). And I ask myself, what's the point?

Unless we're talking about, say, a very final Beta or even a minor fix to a RC, I don't really see fixes being done overnight, or even in a couple of days... At least not done right... Specially in alphas when fixes usually involve major overhauls of a section (if not the whole map). Also, it's rather unfair for people who can't camp out the specific thread opening times and haven't had their map tested a single time that week that other people get their maps tested several times.

So my suggestion is just that. Allow multiple submissions of the same map per week (different versions off course), but give precedence to new submissions.
 
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red_flame586

L420: High Member
Apr 19, 2009
437
122
A Boojum Snark; said:
I can try to explain anything more if you need, though.
I'm always open to suggestions as well.

I think that people who have just missesd out, ie. Those who got their submission in but all the slots were filled should get first preferences for future gamedays. But I do guess that it might be to difficult to organize.
 

Fraz

Blu Hatte, Greyscale Backdrop.
aa
Dec 28, 2008
944
1,152
This is probably a bad idea but...

We could have one thread put up before gameday. Everbody who wants their map tested posts in that thread with their timezone, and the day they'd prefer to get tested on. Somebody then goes through alloting timeslots to certain maps on certain days. When the next week comes, the people who didn't get their map tested get priority over those who did.

Much like we have, except the gameday threads are merged into one large one. If you kinda get me?
 

littleedge

L1111: Clipping Guru
aa
Mar 2, 2009
986
605
I like the idea of having one whole thread for all Gamedays, but that would be a lot of work for Snark. He'd probably have to get some help, and even then it seems like it's something some people wouldn't want to do. I enjoy things like that, but I'm weird, and I doubt others enjoy organizing 20maps or more into four days and keeping track of who gets priority.

If the above doesn't work out, you could do what was mentioned by Caliostro and others where you keep track of who just barely missed submissions. They could get priority the next day they post.