What is the point of PTB?
I am genuinely curious why? What does it change? We download, play, give tons of feedback and what happens in return?
The bugs in PTB mostly transfer to the live version. So I am guessing no to bug reduction.
The balance and game play changes not reflected on live version either. Even the ones strongly recommended in PTB, don't show up till the hotfix patch. So they could have been implemented after live version feedbacks.
For example, literally every forum title I've seen about the new survivor and killer screens, said they were not good design and causing performance problems. And here we are on live version stuck with that design. Not even know if it is planned to change or what.
So what is the point of the PTB? I can't really see one.
Comments
Alot of bugs ARE found on the PTB. You can generally follow this by looking at the "known issues" section of the patch notes, which gets updated as the PTB goes on. Unfortunately, alot of the game doesnt get tested during the PTB since most ppl only want to see whatever is new. With this past PTB for example, many ppl would instantly DC or suicide on hook if they faced anything that wasnt Demogorgon.
What's the point of the PTB? Don't bring out useless killer like PTB Spirit or PTB Ghostface.
The point of the PTB is testing the content.
A lot of stuff gets changed thanks to the PTB, as you can read here https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/87825/ in the "Fixes & Changes from the PTB" section.
The PTB is to test the upcoming patch for bugs and to give feedback on possible changes.
That's is not to say the feedback should or will be implemented.
Bugs can be fixed but not all. As above the patch notesvstate bug fixes and changes it's just some aren't found in the pub and others aren't game breaking and may take a little longer to work out a fix.
They could of course hold off releasing it for a few weeks to work them out but how would the community react to that? It's bad enough when it's coming a week later than people thought it was 😛.
Yeah my bad. I couldn't express myself well.
I wasn't actually asking the textbook definition of PTB. I remember the notes, why it was implemented in the first place.
What I wonder though is it working as intended. Like couldn't they figure out that bugs in two weeks internally. A PTB roughly goes on two weeks. Wouldn't it be better if they just test and fix instead of waiting for bug reports.
And feedback about gameplay can be given after live version and mostly ignored, like how it is now.
@twistedmonkey also I believe PTB kind of kills the hype instead of giving community a relief in the long run. I wonder if PTB affects the release date of live version.
They probably have a lot less people testing the game internally than the people who test the ptb. More eyes always means more chances to catch any bugs before official release.
But still there are tons of bugs with the official release. Most of them are reported during PTB, but there are new bugs added to them.
I've already read the patch notes, seen the fixes. You think they could able to fix them because of PTB? I think they could've fix them without it.
It's why a PTB is needed any changes even simple ones can break other things in the game. They need testing and the more who can test the more than can be found and dealt with.
In the past PTB's weren't for each chapter and the amount of bugs that used to happen were on a much larger scale and some were completely game breaking. Some were considered fun but game breaking none the less.
Think about how many more bugs would be on release without the ptb then. They can only do so much without delaying the whole release of the dlc.
Others have already told you why you're wrong about the bugs (many of which do get stomped out in PTB, but no release is flawless).
You said that they don't react to feedback, yet plain as day in the patch notes is the "Content from the UPCOMING HOTFIX PATCH 3.2.1" section. Just because it doesn't make it into the first live release doesn't mean they aren't taking into consideration. If they did not have a PTB and based all feedback off of live, how much longer would it have taken before they realized that Shred breaking pallets isn't deserving of an Ultra Rare addon and should be base kit?
And YOU may think that the PTB kills hype. I myself like making informed purchases rather than ones based hype and speculation and the PTB is perfect for this.
The devs have a mixed record with PTB events.
Lately though, they've been pretty good at accepting feedback.
But for the most part, PTBs are meant to test content and make sure it is running smoothly.