What is Mass-testing?
Mass-testing events are organized by the CCP QA department on the test servers Singularity and Duality in order to test parts of EVE which need a high number of characters participating at the same time. In most cases the main interest is on the performance of the server and the client in extreme situations like massive fleetfights.
The benefits of Mass Testing:
- Gather performance data for EVE (both client and server)
- Tests high-priority changes by a large number of EVE players
- Gathers critical feedback about new features/changes to EVE, before they are released to Tranquility (or "TQ," EVE's production server).
How to join a mass test event?
- Prerequisite: You need an active account on the test server (Singularity or Duality) , which should be the case if your account was active on Tranquility for the last few months.
- Ensure your launcher is up to date and consider running LogLite in order to detect any problems that may occur.
- As soon as you are logged in, join the chat channel MassTesting, where you will find more detailed instructions for the test in the MOTD (directly before the test).
- Follow the instructions which are given in the MassTesting channel by a CCP dev.
Keep in mind that CCP devs and ISD bug hunters are present about 30 minutes before the mass test and help with forming fleets and moving players to the start system.
Do NOT engage any other player in combat during the mass test, except when told to do so. Breaking rules during the mass test makes the mass test less useful for CCP and might result in a ban from test servers.
Other Tips:
- Use the channel MassQuestions for questions, talking and immediate feedback. The channel MassTesting is normally moderated during mass test events, to make it easier to follow the instructions.
- You can use the command /moveme to be moved to the start system.
- Most tests include a fleet-fight at a gate - a PVP ship for medium range is normally useful.
- Do NOT use smartbombs, bombs or warp-bubbles, except if we ask for it.
What to do after a mass test event?
Write feedback in the feedback thread, which will be posted in the testserver forum. The thread will be linked at the end of the test in the MassTesting channel.
If you noticed any bugs during the mass test please file a Bug Report by pressing F12 ingame.
If you gathered logs with LogLite and want to send them to us please file a Bug Report and attach the logs. If your logs are very large you can either attach several files (which is easier when running logserver in server mode) or you can upload the compressed logs to a 3rd-party file-hoster and give the link in the Bug Report.
What settings should I use?
It is useful (but not required) to run the client in windowed mode, to make it easier to change to LogLite. Other tips include:
- The FPS can be displayed with the shortcut Ctrl+F which we often ask for during feedback surveys or forum threads.
- During large fleet-fights it can be useful to disable brackets to improve the client performance. This can be done by clicking the small white triangle in the top left of the overview window and selecting "Hide all brackets" (or use the shortcut ALT+SHIFT+Z, if you have not changed the default shortcut).
- It is possible to get details about the client performance (for example memory-usage) by opening the client engine tools with CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+M.