Quote:
Originally Posted by Omegataco
I disagree, I think we can get some good thorough testing through each profession and other aspects of the game now that the blue frogs are gone. Do you really believe that people find bugs just by sitting around in Theed dueling all day?
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No, I totally agree that the dueling is mostly pointless (for testing purposes, at least). It's not completely pointless as there is some benefit to be gained, but it's mostly used now for play purposes (or so it would seem).
But this isn't the only usage of the blue frogs. I know it's been awhile and my memory isn't the best, but the pre-CU offiical TC had blue frogs added on occasion to test out certain features so that non-TC players could come in and try them out. Fresh eyes and all that...
I don't think blue frogs are a necessity for any TC, but they are a valid and valuable tool if used properly. SOE proved very successfully how "instant gratification" can ruin a game, and blue frogs permanently installed would work very much along that line. Occassional implementation, however, would allow for that quick bump in skills needed to test out certain features.
In the end, I do agree that much can be learned and tested without the blue frogs implemented. Since it's been stated (unless I'm mis-paraphrasing) no new features will be implemented after this update until the OR is complete, I can very easily see a point in time after the OR that blue frogs will be necessary if those new features require anything a little higher-end. It's simplification. And as Nova is meant to be a more traditional TC, in that it's for testing and not actually playing, we can expect server wipes and all that to come (though hopefully not too frequently!) which almost necessitate blue frogs for some purposes. That's not to say I condone using them just to jump up skill levels or professions instead of doing the work if there's no legitimate testing reason to do so.