Testing VGO! What you need to know.
Moderator: Community Managers
Testing VGO! What you need to know.
UPDATED AS OF: April 27, 2021
Please scroll down just a bit for the list of known issues and how to get around them.
First, let me get some Frequently Asked Questions out of the way:
Q. I've been watching this project for a while and there haven't been many changes/change logs/notices. Is it still being worked on?
A. Yes! We're not very good with keeping the public up to date and we admit that, but we would rather spend our free time on the game and not on trying to organize everything. I at least post everything I'm working on in the Development Forum which you have access to here if you have an account on the forums. You will need to sign up for a forum account to see it.
Q. Will you be wiping our characters whenever you finally launch?
A. Yes. Considering that you can set your own level, set your own money, and buy everything on the exchange, there's no way we can leave those characters when we go live. Rest assured you will have to start over and anew and earn everything you get.
Q. Why is it taking so long to make progress?
A. There's only 6 of us working on this regularly and all of us have full time jobs and families that keep us from working on it. It's all volunteer work and we work in our spare time.
Q. Have you tried to contact SOE/Daybreak Games/Brad McQuaid/Original VG Devs?
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. We have not had much success getting help from these areas. But yes, we have tried. Many times. Rest assured, it is a dead end.
Q. I want to support you, how can I help?
A1. If you want to support us monetarily, first, we can't accept any money for the project. That might put us on the bad side of the companies that could shut us down. The only money support we accept is for the server, which goes 100% to the hosting costs. The money does not go to any of the devs, designers, building the game, adding anything to the game. It is only for the server hosting. If you are interested in helping to pay for the server costs, please see this post.
A2. If you want to support us with coding: If you know C++ and want to help, please get in touch with Xinux. Please keep in mind that if you volunteer to help, that it is an unpaid position, it's a lot of headache inducing, hard work. There are no guides to help you through it. And we do expect some time commitment.
A3. If you want to support us with quest/NPC/item/chunk/abilities/etc scripting: This is the role of the content designer. We add the content to the game with the tools that the developers provide us once they unlock the mysteries of the client. In order to be a content designer, you need to have played to at least level 50 in the game sometime between 2008-2012. Playing it for a month at launch is not enough. Playing it to the mid 30's and then quitting is not enough. We need people who are familiar with how the game works. At this point we are starting to hit the content that has very little information online and you will have to fill in the blanks with intuition and familiarity with how the game works. This position is also unpaid, headachey, hard work. It does require a time commitment. If you think you qualify, contact Jakkal.
Right now in our stage of development, we finally have some interactive components ready for people to test. However the game is not nearly in a finished state. And quite often we have people sending in bug reports for things that have not yet been implemented. So, in order to help alleviate this, we're making a list here of what you should be testing. Now this is not the entirety of what we have set up, but it is a lot of what the Content Designers are currently working on. We're going to help you avoid sending in bug reports for things we can't implement yet, while at the same time giving you a list of what you can test.
We also want to thank everyone, once again, for helping out and testing the content that is available. It really means a lot to us that you're giving up your free time to help make sure the game works as intended.
Before I begin, I'd like to give you some guidelines on how to test. It might seem like it's as simple as getting quests and doing the objectives, but it really isn't. Not everything is set up the way it was in live, some things are set up based upon what the developers have made available to the Content Designers. We want to avoid unnecessary bug reports, so if you could follow these guidelines, it would help us out a lot.
A General Note: If you see notices in your chat about scripts, spawns, or chunks being reloaded - and this somehow interrupts your play - that means that a Developer or Designer is currently in game and working on it. Please do not ask them to stop reloading, as you're basically asking us to stop rebuilding the game. If there's too many reloads for you to test, you can try again later. No offense to anyone, but building the game is our priority. We definitely want you to test it, but we have to build it first.
If you see that a designer/developer is working in the same chunk you are, you should test in a different chunk.
General Gameplay Known Issues: (Edited Apr 27, 2021)
Quest Testing:
Right now the Content Designers are working hard on the quests starting in the original Starter Locations and Isle of Dawn. Our information gathering was just before and during Sunset of Vanguard. So anything you remember from "Vanguard beta" or "Vanguard at launch" might not apply. Once we are finished with starter locations, we are moving out to the next logical progression path.
Please note: Quest ID numbers now show up in the quest name when you accept it! Please use that number to reset quests to retake them if you think you've found an issue.
PLEASE NOTE: If you do everything the quest asks of you, but you return to the questgiver and they have a blue shield over their heads and you can't turn in: CHECK THE QUEST TEXT. Almost all of the bug reports we get of "We cannot turn in after doing the objectives" is a matter of trying to turn in to the wrong NPC. Please check and see if you're supposed to turn in with someone else.
What you should be testing:
1. Can you accept the quest?
2. Is the quest text understandable? Are there any typos?
3. Are the objectives understandable?
4. Are you able to do the objectives (This does not include being unable to get to the objective because of mobs or other difficulties).
5. When you do what the quest asks of you, do you get credit?
6. When you are finished, can you turn it in?
7. When you turn it in, do you get the reward as promised?
8. Do you remember the quest working differently in live? If so, tell us how, and please be specific. If you just think it worked differently without giving us any other information, we can't do anything about it.
For players that find bugs during quest testing:
1. Take note of what you were doing or trying to do when the bug occured.
2. If you have already finished the quest, do a /say .quest reset ID# The ID# is the number after the quest name when you accept it, (For example: Free Captive Brownies - 3571). If you have already turned in the quest, check your chat for the completion text, which should have the quest's name and number on it.
3. Test it a couple of times. Remember, if a quest requires a single drop, the drop rate might be very low.
4. Somewhat optional: Check the Dev forums for the area's quest progress thread and see if a note has been made about a quest not working properly. The devs do not have *all* the options worked out for quests at this time, you might be reporting something they already know, but can't do anything about currently. (The specific chunk threads have been linked to at the bottom of this post).
5. If the bug is consistently present, /bug it. Be as *specific* as possible. Don't tell us you "killed the thing". Tell us "I killed 10 Lobos and I couldn't get the quest item "Lobo's Head" to drop." The more specific you are, the more helpful you are to us.
What you should not be testing:
1. Difficulty of a quest. Right now we just want to make sure that if you do the objective you get quest credit.
2. Mob locations or mob pulls, especially in dungeons.
3. Quest prerequisites or Quest Progression. Sometimes we've left off the prerequisites for easier testing.
4. Mob difficulty, dots, or other quirks. Golden shield mobs are not currently scripted to be locked to the character/group. Mobs are only scripted to move, be part of quests (drops, updates on kill, spawns, etc), and rudimentary attacks. They do not have any kind of specialization.
5. XP rewards and leveling speed. Right now these are placeholders across the board. We have not given XP and leveling speed a passover yet.
6. If the next quest in a series is unavailable, check to see if the Content Designer has gotten that far in building quests. Chances are they haven't completed the series yet.
7. Sparklies and !'s (on in game clickable objects that don't work) - We know some of them don't work and we don't have a fix for it yet.
8. Hathor Zhi/Mekalia - A lot of the information/NPCs are missing. We are aware of this. Please don't test or bug report anything in Hathor Zhi or Mekalia at this time.
9. Quest shields over NPCs. These don't always show up. We're aware of this. This tends to happen a lot when content designers (GMs) are on and reloading scripts a lot.
10. Group drops - We are slowly updating old code that was not checking for group related drops. The newer scripts will be group friendly or will drop loot that only one person can see or take (Like in Live). Older scripts will show a drop that anyone in the group can see and take without any copies for others.
11. If you see a note such as "Quest Text is Missing" when taking a quest, turning in, or completing a quest, you do not need to bug report this. A content designer put that message in specifically. If you get blank text, you still don't need to bug report it, we know.
Class Ability Testing:
We are trying to keep our wiki up to date with information on each class and their abilities. Please go here to see specific class/ability information: http://vgoplayers.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Class
Please remember that VGO is in a very early alpha state. It is not comparable to Live VG yet. We know that players place a high priority on class abilities, but we do not have everything in place yet in order to script class abilities as they were in live. As such you should not be testing them based on how you remembered they work in live. You should base them on the criteria as listed below.
Item Testing:
1. Currently the only items we have regularly scripted are for quests with some items such as food scripted (But not all). Please check to make sure these items work as intended, if it has an intended purpose other than just being in your bags. If it does nothing, it hasn't been scripted and you don't need to report it, unless it's needed for a quest.
2. Make sure that quest items are given to you by the proper NPCs or in game objects (with the ! and sparklies)
3. Make sure that when you complete the quest that the quest items are taken from your inventory. NOTE: Most quests have a specific number of items you need to get for it, sometimes you will get more than necessary to drop. Most quests are scripted only to take the number required for turn-in. So you might have leftovers. This is normal and you will need to manually delete them.
4. If you have a quest item and you think it's supposed to be used as a clicky for the quest, and it does nothing, please rethink what you're trying to do before you bug report it. You might be doing something wrong.
What you don't need to report:
1. If you happen across nonquest items and it works, great! If it doesn't work, it hasn't be scripted yet and you don't need to report it.
2. Some, but not all food items have been scripted in a very early state just so players have something to help heal themselves between combat pulls. If the food item does nothing, it hasn't been scripted and you don't need to report it. We are aware that the food buff does not drop off if you stand up, and if you sit again, it resumes. We're aware that this is not how it worked in live, but it is what we have to work with currently.
3. Mounts sometimes disappear or fall (if flying) on chunklines, we are aware of this.
4. Not all unique/rented/etc stuff disappears like it's supposed to after a 20 minute relog.
5. Sometimes items can be sold to the vendor, or bought back with the improper amount, or deleted items appear in the buyback. We are aware of this.
6. Mount speeds aren't in game. The only way to change your speed is with the /say .speed 1500 command
7. A lot of gear is missing stats. You can feel free to bug report gear with missing stats (Even more helpful if you know what the stats should be). But items are not a priority right now and will probably not be worked on for some time.
8. Mounts are not set to despawn when entering certain areas (Houses, dungeons, buildings, water) or doing certain things (Like casting spells).
Harvesting Testing
1. Currently we have it set up where characters can do the intro to harvesting quests in most of the starter cities (If it is not available in a particular city, it means the Designer has not gotten around to it yet and you don't need to bug it).
2. Characters can then select their two harvesting skills (Primary and Secondary).
3. Characters can harvest nodes of their skill types.
4. Characters can change their harvesting skills.
5. If you stop the harvest before the access timer reaches 50%, it will reset the node. THIS IS INTENTIONAL. This is not a bug.
6. Group harvesting is not in yet.
What you don't need to report:
1. Nodes are not linked or on a timer yet. We only have the very basics up so far.
2. Skillups are extremely slow. We are aware of this.
3. Sometimes nodes of different tiers are stacked on top of each other. It means it hasn't been cleaned up yet. You do not need to report this unless you find it happening only once or twice in an area that is otherwise cleaned up. If you bug report this, post the /loc so we can find it.
4. Harvesting doesn't currently break stealth/invis.
5. Right now harvesting can't really be interrupted. If you're attacked, it won't stop. And if you stop, you can start right back where it left off. We're aware this is not how it should be. But it's what we have available to us currently.
6. Skinning/harvested mobs have to be set up manually by the content designers. If you get to a mob that should be skinnable, the content designers haven't gotten to it yet.
Diplomacy Testing Updated Apr 27, 2021.
Master Starter Town Diplomacy Progress Thread: https://www.vgoemulator.net/phpBB3/view ... =61&t=3909
Master Civic Diplomacy Progress Thread: https://www.vgoemulator.net/phpBB3/view ... =61&t=5393
1. We know you probably have the wrong class/race cards in your deck.
2. Some starter deck cards might be missing. Some cards that weren't part of the starter deck might be missing.
3. Some parleys are missing entirely and the quests, while set up, might not have a necessary parley available. Please check the chunk thread to see if a note has been made about those quests before bug reporting.
4. ALL Diplomacy parleys currently have a cooldown of 5 minutes if you lose or cancel. This includes quest parleys. We will make it so quest parleys don't have this cooldown, but for now they do. We are aware of this and you don't need to bug it.
5. Diplomacy XP has not gotten a pass yet. Diplo XP is somewhat skewed because so many of the collectors may have been using XP potions or were diploing during special XP weekends.
Crafting Testing: Updated Apr 27, 2021.
1. Make sure the quests are clear, that POIs point to where they should point to, that you can accept and turn in.
2. Make sure quest recipes give you the right items for quests.
3. Make sure when you turn in the quests, that the proper items are taken.
4. Artisan's Saga: Ruthless Hunter - I cannot remember what happens here. I know you do a thing at the temple entrance with those NPCs and mobs there, but I cannot remember what happens or what you do. If anyone remembers, please let me know.
Chunk Development Threads: These forum threads should list all work a Content Designer as done thus far in the chunks.
Bordinar's Cleft
Caial Brael
Dahknarg
Halgarad
Hathor Zhi
Isle of Dawn
Jalen's Crossing
Leth Nurae
Lomshir
Martok
Qa Riverbank
Khal/Cliffs of Ghelgad
Tanvu
Three Rivers
Tursh
Vault of Heroes
Renton Keep
Blighted Lands
Magi Hold (Lowbie Area)
Tomb of Lord Tsang
Class Ability Progress Threads:
Note: There is no Berserker or Inquisitor class.
Blood Mage
Cleric
Disciple
Dread Knight
Druid
Monk
Paladin
Psionicist
Ranger
Rogue
Shaman
Sorcerer
Warrior
Bard
Please scroll down just a bit for the list of known issues and how to get around them.
First, let me get some Frequently Asked Questions out of the way:
Q. I've been watching this project for a while and there haven't been many changes/change logs/notices. Is it still being worked on?
A. Yes! We're not very good with keeping the public up to date and we admit that, but we would rather spend our free time on the game and not on trying to organize everything. I at least post everything I'm working on in the Development Forum which you have access to here if you have an account on the forums. You will need to sign up for a forum account to see it.
Q. Will you be wiping our characters whenever you finally launch?
A. Yes. Considering that you can set your own level, set your own money, and buy everything on the exchange, there's no way we can leave those characters when we go live. Rest assured you will have to start over and anew and earn everything you get.
Q. Why is it taking so long to make progress?
A. There's only 6 of us working on this regularly and all of us have full time jobs and families that keep us from working on it. It's all volunteer work and we work in our spare time.
Q. Have you tried to contact SOE/Daybreak Games/Brad McQuaid/Original VG Devs?
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. We have not had much success getting help from these areas. But yes, we have tried. Many times. Rest assured, it is a dead end.
Q. I want to support you, how can I help?
A1. If you want to support us monetarily, first, we can't accept any money for the project. That might put us on the bad side of the companies that could shut us down. The only money support we accept is for the server, which goes 100% to the hosting costs. The money does not go to any of the devs, designers, building the game, adding anything to the game. It is only for the server hosting. If you are interested in helping to pay for the server costs, please see this post.
A2. If you want to support us with coding: If you know C++ and want to help, please get in touch with Xinux. Please keep in mind that if you volunteer to help, that it is an unpaid position, it's a lot of headache inducing, hard work. There are no guides to help you through it. And we do expect some time commitment.
A3. If you want to support us with quest/NPC/item/chunk/abilities/etc scripting: This is the role of the content designer. We add the content to the game with the tools that the developers provide us once they unlock the mysteries of the client. In order to be a content designer, you need to have played to at least level 50 in the game sometime between 2008-2012. Playing it for a month at launch is not enough. Playing it to the mid 30's and then quitting is not enough. We need people who are familiar with how the game works. At this point we are starting to hit the content that has very little information online and you will have to fill in the blanks with intuition and familiarity with how the game works. This position is also unpaid, headachey, hard work. It does require a time commitment. If you think you qualify, contact Jakkal.
Right now in our stage of development, we finally have some interactive components ready for people to test. However the game is not nearly in a finished state. And quite often we have people sending in bug reports for things that have not yet been implemented. So, in order to help alleviate this, we're making a list here of what you should be testing. Now this is not the entirety of what we have set up, but it is a lot of what the Content Designers are currently working on. We're going to help you avoid sending in bug reports for things we can't implement yet, while at the same time giving you a list of what you can test.
We also want to thank everyone, once again, for helping out and testing the content that is available. It really means a lot to us that you're giving up your free time to help make sure the game works as intended.
Before I begin, I'd like to give you some guidelines on how to test. It might seem like it's as simple as getting quests and doing the objectives, but it really isn't. Not everything is set up the way it was in live, some things are set up based upon what the developers have made available to the Content Designers. We want to avoid unnecessary bug reports, so if you could follow these guidelines, it would help us out a lot.
A General Note: If you see notices in your chat about scripts, spawns, or chunks being reloaded - and this somehow interrupts your play - that means that a Developer or Designer is currently in game and working on it. Please do not ask them to stop reloading, as you're basically asking us to stop rebuilding the game. If there's too many reloads for you to test, you can try again later. No offense to anyone, but building the game is our priority. We definitely want you to test it, but we have to build it first.
If you see that a designer/developer is working in the same chunk you are, you should test in a different chunk.
General Gameplay Known Issues: (Edited Apr 27, 2021)
- If after you hit play on the launcher and nothing shows up but you can hear the music: go to your Vanguard\bin folder and open VGClient.ini and look for StartupFullscreen= and if it is false set it to true if it is true set it to false save it and try again.
- Stuck at Loading Screen: If you experience this DO NOT BUG REPORT IT. Get help via the forums or discord. Character trapped at character load in screen, this is after selecting the character and hitting Play. If this happens, please try typing /camp at the loading screen. You will not be able to see what you're typing. Wait at least 30 seconds as your character logs out. This will send your character back to the character select. Sometimes selecting and trying again works.
-If your character is consistently stuck, on the loading screen, If your character is NOT on Isle of Dawn type: /say .rift 1 If your character IS on IOD type /say .rift khal . Again you will not be able to see what you're typing. If you copy and paste that line, hit enter first, paste, hit enter again to make sure it goes through. Give it a few minutes, it should rift you to the chunk specified.
-If none of the above works, contact a GM on a different toon, on discord, or here on the forums. - Mob spawns/Named locations - Currently named are not checked against each other on spawn. So if a named has multiple locations, there is still a chance they will spawn in all of those locations. They are not checked to see if one is already up on spawn.
- Stuck In Combat: There's an issue with players getting trapped in combat. If you are trapped in combat, try attacking and killing another mob. If that doesn't resolve it, try targeting a mob too far away to hit with auto attack, and toggle auto attack on and then off. If that does not resolve it, try using /say .rift chunknamehere and see if rifting to another chunk resolves it. If that doesn't work, you'll have to force exit from game and come back in. If you are repeatedly stuck in combat, please try to figure out what steps you're doing to get stuck, and bug report it with those steps. Please do not bug report that you are getting stuck in combat unless you have any relevant information to give us about the issue. Just bug reporting that you are stuck in combat doesn't help us at all.
- Can't See Target/Line of Sight issues: As the developers continue to work on the geolocation system (Such as what stops a mob on the other side of a wall from detecting you), there will be issues that need to be ironed out. Right now some mobs. especially those near objects or on a different elevation will give a 'line of sight' error. For now, just keep moving around and jumping if you want to attack them.
- Mob Stacking/Excessive Number of Mobs: This is a result of collections, every spawn location is a location recorded in game. It tells us where mobs were in the game, but also where mobs path in the game. Because of this, cleanup is the very last thing we do in a chunk. If you see mobs stacked or too many mobs in an area, it means it hasn't been cleaned up yet. You do not need to bug report this.
- Mobs aggro through walls/floors/ground/objects etc. As mentioned in the "Line of Sight" error, we are still working on a geolocation system that blocks a mob's line of sight to a character. Thus, it is possible that if you are anywhere within the mob's hitbox, you will aggro them regardless of where they are. If you have difficulty getting through an area because of this, you can turn off proximity aggro by using /say .aggro off. Note: This will not stop social aggro if you attack a mob and their allies are around.
- No Dismount In Buildings,etc: You won't be dismounted in most places as we have to manually set dismount off. We're hoping to have a more robust system in the future that will do it for us so for the most part, we're not setting it up at all. (You might see it in some dungeons, but overall, it won't be set up).
- Mob Respawn Timers: Currently mob respawns are set intentionally high for testing purposes. This is not for players but for the Content Designers so they can quickly and efficiently test their content. If the respawns are too quick for you to proceed, you should use /say .aggro off so that they will not proximity aggro. You should not bug report spawn timer issues at this time.
- "Target is Moving And Always Too Far Away". You see a mob moving nearby and you try to hit it, but no matter what you do it's too far away. This is a known issue. Your client never got the message that your target stopped moving. So the client still shows it moving in one direction until it disappears, where it pops back to where it is supposed to be.
- "Mob is floating through the air and shouldn't be" OR "Mob is going straight through the ground." See the above issue, it's the same bug. This is especially noticeable in hilly areas.
Quest Testing:
Right now the Content Designers are working hard on the quests starting in the original Starter Locations and Isle of Dawn. Our information gathering was just before and during Sunset of Vanguard. So anything you remember from "Vanguard beta" or "Vanguard at launch" might not apply. Once we are finished with starter locations, we are moving out to the next logical progression path.
Please note: Quest ID numbers now show up in the quest name when you accept it! Please use that number to reset quests to retake them if you think you've found an issue.
PLEASE NOTE: If you do everything the quest asks of you, but you return to the questgiver and they have a blue shield over their heads and you can't turn in: CHECK THE QUEST TEXT. Almost all of the bug reports we get of "We cannot turn in after doing the objectives" is a matter of trying to turn in to the wrong NPC. Please check and see if you're supposed to turn in with someone else.
What you should be testing:
1. Can you accept the quest?
2. Is the quest text understandable? Are there any typos?
3. Are the objectives understandable?
4. Are you able to do the objectives (This does not include being unable to get to the objective because of mobs or other difficulties).
5. When you do what the quest asks of you, do you get credit?
6. When you are finished, can you turn it in?
7. When you turn it in, do you get the reward as promised?
8. Do you remember the quest working differently in live? If so, tell us how, and please be specific. If you just think it worked differently without giving us any other information, we can't do anything about it.
For players that find bugs during quest testing:
1. Take note of what you were doing or trying to do when the bug occured.
2. If you have already finished the quest, do a /say .quest reset ID# The ID# is the number after the quest name when you accept it, (For example: Free Captive Brownies - 3571). If you have already turned in the quest, check your chat for the completion text, which should have the quest's name and number on it.
3. Test it a couple of times. Remember, if a quest requires a single drop, the drop rate might be very low.
4. Somewhat optional: Check the Dev forums for the area's quest progress thread and see if a note has been made about a quest not working properly. The devs do not have *all* the options worked out for quests at this time, you might be reporting something they already know, but can't do anything about currently. (The specific chunk threads have been linked to at the bottom of this post).
5. If the bug is consistently present, /bug it. Be as *specific* as possible. Don't tell us you "killed the thing". Tell us "I killed 10 Lobos and I couldn't get the quest item "Lobo's Head" to drop." The more specific you are, the more helpful you are to us.
What you should not be testing:
1. Difficulty of a quest. Right now we just want to make sure that if you do the objective you get quest credit.
2. Mob locations or mob pulls, especially in dungeons.
3. Quest prerequisites or Quest Progression. Sometimes we've left off the prerequisites for easier testing.
4. Mob difficulty, dots, or other quirks. Golden shield mobs are not currently scripted to be locked to the character/group. Mobs are only scripted to move, be part of quests (drops, updates on kill, spawns, etc), and rudimentary attacks. They do not have any kind of specialization.
5. XP rewards and leveling speed. Right now these are placeholders across the board. We have not given XP and leveling speed a passover yet.
6. If the next quest in a series is unavailable, check to see if the Content Designer has gotten that far in building quests. Chances are they haven't completed the series yet.
7. Sparklies and !'s (on in game clickable objects that don't work) - We know some of them don't work and we don't have a fix for it yet.
8. Hathor Zhi/Mekalia - A lot of the information/NPCs are missing. We are aware of this. Please don't test or bug report anything in Hathor Zhi or Mekalia at this time.
9. Quest shields over NPCs. These don't always show up. We're aware of this. This tends to happen a lot when content designers (GMs) are on and reloading scripts a lot.
10. Group drops - We are slowly updating old code that was not checking for group related drops. The newer scripts will be group friendly or will drop loot that only one person can see or take (Like in Live). Older scripts will show a drop that anyone in the group can see and take without any copies for others.
11. If you see a note such as "Quest Text is Missing" when taking a quest, turning in, or completing a quest, you do not need to bug report this. A content designer put that message in specifically. If you get blank text, you still don't need to bug report it, we know.
Class Ability Testing:
We are trying to keep our wiki up to date with information on each class and their abilities. Please go here to see specific class/ability information: http://vgoplayers.com/wiki/index.php/Category:Class
Please remember that VGO is in a very early alpha state. It is not comparable to Live VG yet. We know that players place a high priority on class abilities, but we do not have everything in place yet in order to script class abilities as they were in live. As such you should not be testing them based on how you remembered they work in live. You should base them on the criteria as listed below.
- When you use the ability, does it work as listed for the ability description?
- If it doesn't do anything at all, then it has not been scripted yet, and you may ignore it. (Some abilities will tell you in the /say window that it hasn't been implemented yet. But not all the unscripted abilities will say that.)
- Some abilities will say in chat if they are not scripted yet or scripted fully. If you find an ability that seems not to work or not working fully, please check your chat for the message before you bug report.
- Actual numbers on abilities - We want to make sure you hit the button and abilities trigger. The actual details (Such as stats) are still being worked on.
- Abilities outside of those that have been specifically scripted by the Content Designers. If it does nothing, it hasn't been scripted. Most of these now give a message that it hasn't been scripted yet. Don't bug report those.
- Finishers and other triggered abilities. This includes reactions, counters and rescues. The ability to trigger a finisher has been recently added. However, unless a designer has mentioned they've scripted an ability, it might not work even though it triggers. If it does nothing, then it hasn't been scripted yet and you don't need to report it.
- While you can make and in some cases use macros, macros will not work for abilities that require another ability fires off first. We don't have that code in place. For example, The Dread Knight Harrow is quite often used after Shadow Step. Our system is not currently set up to allow that to work. You can test Harrow and Shadow Step individually, however.
- Missing often when getting a new ability, getting new skillups. This happens a lot for spell schools and melee abilities where you are lacking the necessary skills. This happens a lot when you level as well. If you get an ability at level 5 and have 0 skill in what that ability requires, expect to miss a lot. You don't need to report this. We are aware of it. If you miss a lot when you have the highest level of skillup for your level and you miss more often than not, you can report it. Please test it thoroughly before reporting, record your misses and hits. Don't tell us it "feels like I miss a lot". That gives us nothing to work with.
- Any 'jump/warp' ability such as DK Shadow Step will have you jumping through walls and objects if your target is next to them. There is no bounding box in game yet. We are aware of this and you don't need to bug report it.
- Many abilities that have complex components, such as changes to regeneration (HP/Energy/Endurance) or changes to costs are not fully implemented. You do not need to bug report this, we are aware.
- While some of the functionality for bard songs is currently in, most of the actual bard song components are not scripted yet. We have no way to tell the player they are not scripted without spamming them every 4 seconds with a message. There is no way for us to tell the client not to show these components. If you build a bard song, and certain components don't do anything, you don't need to report it.
- Pets exist on a very basic level. Only Necros have 'true' pets currently. All other 'pet' classes merely have minions at this time and do not behave like normal pets should. They are placeholders and should not be expected to behave like Live VG Pets.
- If you used the setlevel command, do not bug report troubles you have with abilities. Chances are it relates to setlevel.
- Some DOTs, stances, or anything that ticks or pulses might show an animation everytime they fire.
Item Testing:
1. Currently the only items we have regularly scripted are for quests with some items such as food scripted (But not all). Please check to make sure these items work as intended, if it has an intended purpose other than just being in your bags. If it does nothing, it hasn't been scripted and you don't need to report it, unless it's needed for a quest.
2. Make sure that quest items are given to you by the proper NPCs or in game objects (with the ! and sparklies)
3. Make sure that when you complete the quest that the quest items are taken from your inventory. NOTE: Most quests have a specific number of items you need to get for it, sometimes you will get more than necessary to drop. Most quests are scripted only to take the number required for turn-in. So you might have leftovers. This is normal and you will need to manually delete them.
4. If you have a quest item and you think it's supposed to be used as a clicky for the quest, and it does nothing, please rethink what you're trying to do before you bug report it. You might be doing something wrong.
What you don't need to report:
1. If you happen across nonquest items and it works, great! If it doesn't work, it hasn't be scripted yet and you don't need to report it.
2. Some, but not all food items have been scripted in a very early state just so players have something to help heal themselves between combat pulls. If the food item does nothing, it hasn't been scripted and you don't need to report it. We are aware that the food buff does not drop off if you stand up, and if you sit again, it resumes. We're aware that this is not how it worked in live, but it is what we have to work with currently.
3. Mounts sometimes disappear or fall (if flying) on chunklines, we are aware of this.
4. Not all unique/rented/etc stuff disappears like it's supposed to after a 20 minute relog.
5. Sometimes items can be sold to the vendor, or bought back with the improper amount, or deleted items appear in the buyback. We are aware of this.
6. Mount speeds aren't in game. The only way to change your speed is with the /say .speed 1500 command
7. A lot of gear is missing stats. You can feel free to bug report gear with missing stats (Even more helpful if you know what the stats should be). But items are not a priority right now and will probably not be worked on for some time.
8. Mounts are not set to despawn when entering certain areas (Houses, dungeons, buildings, water) or doing certain things (Like casting spells).
Harvesting Testing
1. Currently we have it set up where characters can do the intro to harvesting quests in most of the starter cities (If it is not available in a particular city, it means the Designer has not gotten around to it yet and you don't need to bug it).
2. Characters can then select their two harvesting skills (Primary and Secondary).
3. Characters can harvest nodes of their skill types.
4. Characters can change their harvesting skills.
5. If you stop the harvest before the access timer reaches 50%, it will reset the node. THIS IS INTENTIONAL. This is not a bug.
6. Group harvesting is not in yet.
What you don't need to report:
1. Nodes are not linked or on a timer yet. We only have the very basics up so far.
2. Skillups are extremely slow. We are aware of this.
3. Sometimes nodes of different tiers are stacked on top of each other. It means it hasn't been cleaned up yet. You do not need to report this unless you find it happening only once or twice in an area that is otherwise cleaned up. If you bug report this, post the /loc so we can find it.
4. Harvesting doesn't currently break stealth/invis.
5. Right now harvesting can't really be interrupted. If you're attacked, it won't stop. And if you stop, you can start right back where it left off. We're aware this is not how it should be. But it's what we have available to us currently.
6. Skinning/harvested mobs have to be set up manually by the content designers. If you get to a mob that should be skinnable, the content designers haven't gotten to it yet.
Diplomacy Testing Updated Apr 27, 2021.
Master Starter Town Diplomacy Progress Thread: https://www.vgoemulator.net/phpBB3/view ... =61&t=3909
Master Civic Diplomacy Progress Thread: https://www.vgoemulator.net/phpBB3/view ... =61&t=5393
- Diplomacy is in an extremely early stage of development. For some quests, it works fine. (IOD has the most up-to-date examples).
- Civic Diplo buffs/levers have recently been implemented but not all buffs can be set up in full working order and not all areas are set up yet.
- If you see a typo in Diplomacy, or an oddly placed NPC name instead of your character, a different NPC, an item, etc, please bug report it.
- Diplomacy Presence does not go up with parleys. This has not been implemented yet.
- Diplomacy does not current level-block you. In Live you couldn't do parleys that were 6+ levels above yours. This has not been implemented yet in VGO. (Though it should be in soon).
- No diplomacy gear has been scripted yet. So if they have special effects like buffs or changes to the parley counter, they are not implemented yet.
1. We know you probably have the wrong class/race cards in your deck.
2. Some starter deck cards might be missing. Some cards that weren't part of the starter deck might be missing.
3. Some parleys are missing entirely and the quests, while set up, might not have a necessary parley available. Please check the chunk thread to see if a note has been made about those quests before bug reporting.
4. ALL Diplomacy parleys currently have a cooldown of 5 minutes if you lose or cancel. This includes quest parleys. We will make it so quest parleys don't have this cooldown, but for now they do. We are aware of this and you don't need to bug it.
5. Diplomacy XP has not gotten a pass yet. Diplo XP is somewhat skewed because so many of the collectors may have been using XP potions or were diploing during special XP weekends.
Crafting Testing: Updated Apr 27, 2021.
- Crafting is in a very early state. This post has a lot of info on it: https://www.vgoemulator.net/phpBB3/view ... f=5&t=4542
- Crafting is only set up to T1 in full. T2 is currently being worked on.
- ALL RECIPES are on the trainers. But not all recipes are set up to work yet. We cannot tell the client not to display recipes that aren't ready yet.
- If you try to make an item on a recipe that is not set up yet, it will let you do the entire recipe. At the very end, it will tell you that there's no result associated with that recipe. DO NOT BUG REPORT THESE. WE KNOW. Each recipe has to be set up manually in a very, very time consuming process. They will not be set up for a while.
- The actual crafting is BARE BONES. Progress is based mostly on a dice roll + skill calculations. But a bad roll on an action with a VERY HIGH PROGRESS could be lower than a great roll on an action with a VERY LOW Progress. Right now crafting is NOT predictable in this way.
- ALL Complications are active. In LiveVG these Complications were set up in Tiers. You could get a T4 complication doing a T1 recipe. Yes, sometimes this will stop you from completing the recipe.
- Some of the animations are messed up. We are still working on this, you don't have to bug report them. (A lot of them are complication grumps/cries/etc during regular actions)
- Table setup does not automatically put up what you NEED on the table. You have to do all that manually.
- It doesn't seem to care what tools you're using. It also doesn't care if you move them around your toolbelts during the crafting process. It also doesn't move the tools used from the toolbelt to the one being used.
- Crafting complications that affect progress aren't knocking down progress.
- If you get more than one complication, the additional complications will show the same information as the first one, until the first one clears. Then they'll display the proper information.
- I went through all the quests for all three crafting classes and everything worked for me. But I found one quest that was no longer working (The crafting recipe had no result). If you find anymore of these, please let me know. You can /bug or send me a forum PM, or tell me in game if you see me on.
- Some recipes are on the trainer that should require a flag to learn, or are supposed to be on only one or two trainers (such as the Hand Cannon and Gwartak stuff). Currently we do not have these as requiring flags and they're on all trainers.
- T1 Work orders are implemented. Others are not implemented yet. They are still on the taskmasters, there is no way for us to tell them not to list them.
- Crafting does not change your character's appearance/gear to that of their crafting clothing upon crafting.
- Crafting Utilities or materials are displaying errors when trying to move them from the inventory to the crafting table. Just close the session and try again.
- Crafting utilities sell back at full price currently, despite charge amount, as everything is set with a fixed price right now.
- Crafting utilities and some others will display only 2 digits in the Crafting Table Setup when the stack or charge size might be higher. This was an issue in SOE as well, as the utilities had a stack size of 20, but they increased the cap without changing how the rest of the crafting session worked. I don't believe we can fix this without reducing the stack/charge cap to less than 100.
- Crafting table will say that you are missing an item when you have it available. We believe it's related to the above problem where something is going wrong with moving stuff from your inventory to the crafting table.
1. Make sure the quests are clear, that POIs point to where they should point to, that you can accept and turn in.
2. Make sure quest recipes give you the right items for quests.
3. Make sure when you turn in the quests, that the proper items are taken.
4. Artisan's Saga: Ruthless Hunter - I cannot remember what happens here. I know you do a thing at the temple entrance with those NPCs and mobs there, but I cannot remember what happens or what you do. If anyone remembers, please let me know.
Chunk Development Threads: These forum threads should list all work a Content Designer as done thus far in the chunks.
Bordinar's Cleft
Caial Brael
Dahknarg
Halgarad
Hathor Zhi
Isle of Dawn
Jalen's Crossing
Leth Nurae
Lomshir
Martok
Qa Riverbank
Khal/Cliffs of Ghelgad
Tanvu
Three Rivers
Tursh
Vault of Heroes
Renton Keep
Blighted Lands
Magi Hold (Lowbie Area)
Tomb of Lord Tsang
Class Ability Progress Threads:
Note: There is no Berserker or Inquisitor class.
Blood Mage
Cleric
Disciple
Dread Knight
Druid
Monk
Paladin
Psionicist
Ranger
Rogue
Shaman
Sorcerer
Warrior
Bard
Last edited by Jakkal on Sun Jul 02, 2017 8:30 pm, edited 30 times in total.
Re: Testing VGO! What you need to know.
Thank you for this post - It does help know what to check and what not to. i already figured out some of this from my questions, and I bet it was annoying getting the same questions from multiple people
Re: Testing VGO! What you need to know.
No, not annoying at all! I was worried that people posting and bugs were getting discouraged by all the "Yes, we know about this" or "We haven't implemented it yet" posts. We want testers to feel like they're helping!
Re: Testing VGO! What you need to know.
Very well put together
Re: Testing VGO! What you need to know.
Great guide, and don't worry we are aware that there is still a lot to be done despite the great amount of effort done so far.
Re: Testing VGO! What you need to know.
It's very good to see that development is reaching a stage where testing is needed. Well done team!
I very much appreciate the work you've put into this guide, Jakkal. Along with how we should be testing each sphere, is there any particular place, class, race or content which needs specific attention? In other words, where should we begin? I would hate to jump in and simply retest content that has previously been hit. Is there perhaps one starting area that is closer to completion than the others?
I was considering just hoping in on a level 1 Dark Elk Necromancer if there was nothing more pressing. Let me know!
I very much appreciate the work you've put into this guide, Jakkal. Along with how we should be testing each sphere, is there any particular place, class, race or content which needs specific attention? In other words, where should we begin? I would hate to jump in and simply retest content that has previously been hit. Is there perhaps one starting area that is closer to completion than the others?
I was considering just hoping in on a level 1 Dark Elk Necromancer if there was nothing more pressing. Let me know!
Re: Testing VGO! What you need to know.
Because everything is changing, such as when the devs add in new conditions or new scripting or whatnot, our stuff needs constant testing. So don't worry about testing things that people have already tested. Some of the quests that work this week might stop working next week. And we'd never know if it weren't for testers looking out for it.
My suggestion is to start in one of the starter towns, except Hathor Zhi, that still needs work.
My suggestion is to start in one of the starter towns, except Hathor Zhi, that still needs work.
Re: Testing VGO! What you need to know.
[quote="Jakkal"]Because everything is changing, such as when the devs add in new conditions or new scripting or whatnot, our stuff needs constant testing. So don't worry about testing things that people have already tested. Some of the quests that work this week might stop working next week. And we'd never know if it weren't for testers looking out for it.
My suggestion is to start in one of the starter towns, except Hathor Zhi, that still needs work.[/quote]
Lol. So anywhere but where I was planning. 10-4!
Sounds good. Thanks for the quick response
My suggestion is to start in one of the starter towns, except Hathor Zhi, that still needs work.[/quote]
Lol. So anywhere but where I was planning. 10-4!
Sounds good. Thanks for the quick response
Re: Testing VGO! What you need to know.
[quote="Jakkal"]
Note: There is no Berserker or Inquisitor class.[/quote]
I don't recall these ever being a playable class. o_o
Note: There is no Berserker or Inquisitor class.[/quote]
I don't recall these ever being a playable class. o_o
Re: Testing VGO! What you need to know.
[quote="Zukan"][quote="Jakkal"]
Note: There is no Berserker or Inquisitor class.[/quote]
I don't recall these ever being a playable class. o_o[/quote]
Surprisingly, I've seen people bug it, or request it.
Note: There is no Berserker or Inquisitor class.[/quote]
I don't recall these ever being a playable class. o_o[/quote]
Surprisingly, I've seen people bug it, or request it.