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I ask again: Any plans to put the PTB as a separate library entry?

Xbob42 Xbob42
in Feedback and Suggestions

The current PTB setup (using a beta branch) does not encourage people to keep testing. You change your main install and engage a relatively large download to play on the PTB, but if you want to play the live game again, you have to leave the beta and do another large download.

This means most people who play on the PTB will play for a day or two, and then permanently switch back to live, because it's a bit of a hassle and lots of folks in certain regions are on data caps, not to mention just the amount of time it takes even without considering caps or download speeds.

To get around this, many games have simply added beta/public test builds as separate library entries in Steam. You can keep the PTB installed separately, play whichever you want, whenever, and overall download less data.

Comments

  • SkeletalElite SkeletalElite

    If the download time was really what was stopping people from playing PTB more, they would just use steam to make a backup of live/PTB version so you can switch without a download. Takes a bit of time to do but if you plan on switching around it saves time. What really stops people is progress is meaningless on the PTB.

  • Xbob42 Xbob42

    @SkeletalElite said:

    If the download time was really what was stopping people from playing PTB more, they would just use steam to make a backup of live/PTB version so you can switch without a download. Takes a bit of time to do but if you plan on switching around it saves time. What really stops people is progress is meaningless on the PTB.

    Both redownloading the game and making a backup are hassles. There should be no hassles. Getting into the PTB should be smooth and easy. No one should have to backup files or wait for downloads beyond the initial one, especially not to switch back to Live.

    Yes, many won't play because of the lack of progression, but I personally completely stopped playing the Blight PTB after like 5 matches because of how tedious it was to switch back and forth.

  • Kees_T Kees_T

    @SkeletalElite said:

    If the download time was really what was stopping people from playing PTB more, they would just use steam to make a backup of live/PTB version so you can switch without a download. Takes a bit of time to do but if you plan on switching around it saves time. What really stops people is progress is meaningless on the PTB.

    Not for me. I always play the PTB to test the new things but I only play for a few days, because I want play in the normal servers after I've tested everything I wanted. If PTB could be separated from the original I admit I would play a little more on it.

  • Kees_T Kees_T

    @SkeletalElite said:

    If the download time was really what was stopping people from playing PTB more, they would just use steam to make a backup of live/PTB version so you can switch without a download. Takes a bit of time to do but if you plan on switching around it saves time. What really stops people is progress is meaningless on the PTB.

    Also backups takes a lot of time too, almost the same as downloading, and your PC is slowed while you're transfering the files sou can't play other games that requires too much resource.

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