Visionary Realms has shared in-depth details about Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen’s new testing program after they scrapped the original program and recruited a whole new group of testers.
They are in the process of welcoming the first testing groups, and they’re sharing how these groups will get started as well as what we can expect in the future. The testing group has been split into two different types: Focus Testing and Organic Testing.
Focus testers will be the more intimate first step for new mechanics, small changes to class abilities, mechanics, new systems, and initial tuning. These testers will be asked to do things over and over to try and check how things work, reproduce bugs, and even test out the fixes. Everything is early, unfinished and Will probably change a number of times over before even the second group of testers get their hands on it.
Focus Testers will sign NDAs, must be active participants, and must pledge not to share any details of their experience, including their test character names ( which must be different from their existing characters).
Organic Testing involves a larger group that will test out a set of changes, on a less granular basis and play the game normally. Stuff like balance changes, pacing tweaks, economic changes, and anything regular play might show them. This will happen on a public preview server, which will be open occasionally. If you have a Pantheon account in good standing, you can even join.
This new system is intended to let them catch bugs early, be more consistent with their testing, and prevent tester burnout.
The team lays out all of the changes, including increased group sizes, consistent cadence, and Other ways they aim to ensure more consistent feedback.
