Couple months ago there was community suggestion to release optional beta builds prior official release. This way those who opted to test earlier could reveal all the bugs prior Asobo/MSFS introduce new bugs; thus, saving cost of development and community physiological state after each patch! I know there was discussion to implement this in 2021.

So here we are a week after the new year. I'm justing wondering if it still on the table of things to do ? 

This was on official wish lists (e.g. #22 on 11.25.2020) but seems to have been disappeard into the thin air recently

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/593317-january-7th-2021-development-update/

More sad news, because, as you state, this would have been helpful for devs as well as customers alike.

Kind regards, Michael

 

 

1 hour ago, pmb said:

This was on official wish lists (e.g. #22 on 11.25.2020) but seems to have been disappeard into the thin air recently

https://www.avsim.com/forums/topic/593317-january-7th-2021-development-update/

More sad news, because, as you state, this would have been helpful for devs as well as customers alike.

Kind regards, Michael

 

 

They need to tightly control the beta cycle to maintain a steady pace IMO.

Regards

bs

On the other hand, this beta opt-in scheme has been working perfectly for other Steam games, eh simulators. Take X-Plane11 or AeroflyFS2 as examples, not to speak of ETS2 etc.

Kind regards, Michael

They didn’t seem to take action on much feedback from the Alpha group so not sure what benefit a Beta group would be if their track record remains consistent.

I think it's apparent that Asobo needs an Overhaul of the Testing & Bug Fixing Priority Department before releasing Content and Patches, the Sim is new but simple mistakes are still being made when they really shouldn't be.

Already in the first few months of operation we've had:
- Patches breaking previously working areas, this should not be happening at all.
- UI Elements broken in a Patch and not fixed for weeks.
- Features implemented "half-baked" i.e. not working correctly and no signs of them being "finished"
- "World" Updates breaking something and Features of the Update (POI) not working properly which should NOT be missed before released.
- Small Patch Downloads forcing some people to continually re-download the entire Sim (even if they had no Community Mods installed)

This would all be OK if the Sim was classed as "Beta" or "Early Access", but it's not, it was released as a "v1.0" so to speak so it's to be expected that things will improve each Patch not go backwards/sideways every time one is released.

As above what worries me a lot is reading posts by Alpha Tester who say they were continually ignored during the Alpha & Beta testing stages, which makes me question whether a dedicated Beta Branch would actually work at all given Asobos history with this area. From the outside looking in it's simply been a poor first few months of operation, I've been gaming/simming for decades they way they've handled this Release is one of the worst I've seen for a very long time....a very very long time.

They need to sort it out, they need to do better, they need to listen to everyone and not prioritise Subjects via the Voting System which is something they appear to be ignoring half the time anyway (I've never ever known a Developer to base Bug Priorities on a Voting System, if they don't know what the most pressing Bugs are then what are they actually doing......that whole thing needs binning but that's another subject entirely!)

Having said all that the potential is of course huge and exciting for the future, I am thoroughly enjoying myself aside from moments of utter disbelief (see my thread on Devils Tower...) and I can imagine in a few years time this Sim will be utterly incredible, so with some better Testing & Priority Systems in place it could get there sooner and these "Simple" mistakes could be rectified.

But isn't Jörg confirmed in the Q&A that they will roll out the beta testing in Q1 or Q2 2021?

https://forums.flightsimulator.com/t/prerelease-testing/281148/9

Edited January 10, 20215 yr by omarsmak30

15 hours ago, snglecoil said:

They didn’t seem to take action on much feedback from the Alpha group so not sure what benefit a Beta group would be if their track record remains consistent.

Amen to that.

Especially when the voters and "beta testers" are the 17 year old twitch streamers who've never used a flight sim up until MSFS.

2 hours ago, MarcG said:

I think it's apparent that Asobo needs an Overhaul of the Testing & Bug Fixing Priority Department before releasing Content and Patches, the Sim is new but simple mistakes are still being made when they really shouldn't be

That's your definition of mistakes, not theirs.

Don't forget, they're not aiming for the same sim nirvana that you (we) are. Their definition of success is very different to ours so they're working towards a very different goal. I'm pretty sure it's going in exactly the direction they want it to, they're not new to this.

They need to make it profitable (or at least, their success metric needs to go up) before they make it good. If they do it the other way round it will be canned before it's any good (better, I still think it's pretty amazing).

I totally get the frustration, there's so much they seem to do that makes no sense but they're balancing a whole load of 'other' business interests that we are unaware of.

Let's keep the pressure on them and tell them what we want and what needs fixing but let's also try and remember that there's a whole load of 'stuff' we can't see and don't know about (dare I mention the unknown unknowns 😀) that they're dealing with and, in all honesty, the success and longevity of of MFS as a platform probably depends much more on this 'stuff' we can't see than it does the bugs we can.

I had the impression of constantly getting beta versions since release?

44 minutes ago, ThomseN_inc said:

I had the impression of constantly getting beta versions since release?

Up, me too. I paid £119.99 for my early beta build. 🤣

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with what I've got even though it needs some things sorting out, but it was hardly a complete product, and if it isn't a complete product, then it's either a beta or an early access.

On 1/9/2021 at 2:48 PM, sd_flyer said:

This way those who opted to test earlier could reveal all the bugs prior Asobo/MSFS introduce new bugs; thus, saving cost of development and community physiological state after each patch!

i was an alpha tester and they did not resolve issues found by alpha testers into beta and final build.  doubt they will act differently here.  maybe i'm wrong but dont be optimistic about that option.

7 minutes ago, Brandon01110 said:

i was an alpha tester and they did not resolve issues found by alpha testers into beta and final build.  doubt they will act differently here.  maybe i'm wrong but dont be optimistic about that option.

So was I. But we can't compare something that was obviously rushed to release and something that is already release and keep getting broken build after build. The optional beta team may test base within scope they have been asked for. For example things like autopilot would be even discovered by "17 years old twich streamers". 🙂 

1 minute ago, sd_flyer said:

But we can't compare something that was obviously rushed to release 

I hope you are right but if i was a betting man........

Without a big change in direction/leadership, my experience is typically that past performance is the best indicator of what to expect in the future.

Edited January 10, 20215 yr by marsman2020