I don't think any test-group formed will be composed entirely of alphas... besides having level-headed pilots who can fight, we'd probably need people who adapt well, and know how to analyze combat situations even after tweaks to weapons; too often, a pilot forms habits and expectations that hamper their fighting ability.

Testers also need to be able to discuss and reach a consensus-- perhaps players who know each others abilities...

All things considered, I believe the group could consist of our guides, and a few helpers. (hey, if guides need anyone on the spur of the moment, they can just devwarp them in for one round of testing).

(that is, if the devs deem it possible to have a place for testing. Devlopia already sounds pretty good, though you can't modify equipment stats)

The group wouldn't need to reach consensus. Their disagreement, and discussion would provide the devs with more information. In the end all decisions would still actually be made by the devs.

Dev warping people into the sector would be possible... but wouldn't be done for temporary cases, since it would be difficult to force them to leave.

okay, admittedly consensus is not necessary, just that testers need to be able to consider each others perspectives.

and if devs going to go ahead with this, perhaps you could keep a thread open about what is tested, to what results, for the general userbase? (the thread could be kept locked to keep it efficient and informative)

I love this idea, but I also can recognize the burning desire I (and I'm sure many others have) to get into this "group" and I can imagine how much it would piss somebody off to not get picked.

I don't think it should be based on duel stats, because those can be manipulated easily (me to n00b: "Hey, I'll give you 50k to duel"), and I know that a lot of people have extremely low rankings because they didn't know/think that prexisting duels would count when a rating finally came out (one of my alts can vouch for this).

understand your perspective, smittens-- (though if someone would be upset over not taking part, it's possibly a good thing they weren't chosen.)

I wonder if it would be feasible to chose testers who would not flaunt their status, but rather kept it quiet. Curtails friction... and would give the devs more freedom to decide what changes to make.

Wouldn't want a tester lobbying for a case too hard, against the devs, because even if extensive testing and tweaking take place, and someone feels that they have evidence justifying such-and-such a change, it's still devs' call. :)

Going along that thought, I'm considering taking back what I said about publicizing testing progress, to give devs and testers a bit more freedom (though I'd love to know what's going on).

cheers,
evoli

me wonders if the devs shouldn't have done a duel whipe when they actually made rankings mean something...

Rene, maybe they will when they do. Duel stats don't mean any more today than they did before.

I must say I think this is a bad idea. The main reason is that the concept of fair and balanced to one player is not necessarily at all similar with what Guild has intended for the universe. While to some extents it can be beneficial for making some minor adjustments and weeding out flaws, I doubt that a select group of players could truly balance the universe.

Now I admit it sounds fun and even I would like to participate, yet awarding people to test is not the right way to go about doing so. Since traders/miners/non-PVPers should be included in the overall scheme of balance, basing the requirements for entrance on merely duel stats would leave many players misrepresented.

I don't think the universe should be based on a balance which fosters only skilled players; everyone should be considered important.

/me finds that strange coming from the person at the top of the board :D and who is by far and large regarded as the most skilled player in the game. Just as the rest of the people within the top 10...

I dunno... Considering I tend to use duels to test strange weapon setups (Dual Flechettes and Gatling Cannon on a Wraith, for instance), I tend to lose my duels, but I think I'm at least a bit better than my duel stats would seem to indicate.